Raspberry champagne cake

It's safe to say that spring is finally here! However, knowing Boston, I wouldn't be surprised if it suddenly started snowing next week. In the meantime, I'm hopeful that the nicer weather is here to stay!

Besides the warmth, I can't wait to start using all these fresh spring produce in my baking and cooking. Visions of berries and other fruit based desserts are dancing around in my head, and I just hope I have the time to attempt them all!

Today, here's a raspberry champagne cake, overflowing with fresh berries, to kick off all the spring baking.

The cake itself is a regular white cake with champagne added - the bubbles add a bit of airiness to each bite as well as a nice overall sweetness.

The champagne also goes into the frosting, along with fresh raspberries. Raspberry and champagne are pureed together and reduced to thick syrup before addition to the buttercream.

The three layer cake is then assembled with generous amounts of the raspberry frosting between each cake layer. The whole thing is slathered in the remaining frosting and topped with a simple arrangement of fresh berries. (And then, of course, you drink the remaining champagne with the leftover berries!)

Here's to even more baking to celebrate the good weather!

Raspberry champange cake (makes one three-layer cake)
Recipe adapted from The Cake Blog

Cake:

• 1¼ cups (2½ sticks) of unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 350 g (1¾ cup) of white sugar
• 6 egg whites, room temperature
• 2½ tsp vanilla extract
• 350 g (3½ cup) of cake flour
• 2½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1¼ cups of champagne, room temperature 

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour three 8-inch round pans.
2. Cream butter in stand mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add in sugar and cardamom and continue mixing until combined.
3. Add egg whites (one at a time) and vanilla and continue mixing until combined.
4. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together.
5. Alternate adding in the flour mixture and the champagne, to the wet mixture, starting and ending with flour, until everything is added. Mix on low speed until just combined, scraping down the sides. 
6. Bake for 25 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. 
7. Let cool completely before assembling and frosting. 

Frosting:

• 12 oz raspberries
• ¾ cup champagne 
• 2 cups (4 sticks) of unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 600 - 750 g (5-6 cups) of powdered sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• Fresh berries, for decoration

1. Puree 9 oz of the raspberries and strain out the seeds (set aside the remaining 3 oz for later)
2. Mix puree with champagne and heat over medium heat. Let the mixture simmer, while stirring, until it has reduced to a little under 1 cup. 
3. Cream butter in stand mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in ½ cup of the raspberry champagne reduction and vanilla and mix well. 
4. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix until desired consistency is reached. 
5. Remove half of the frosting and set aside. This will be outer layer of frosting. Mix in remaining raspberries. This will be your filling.
6. Place the bottom layer of your cake on the serving plate and spread half of your filling over the top. Place middle layer on top and spread remaining filling on top. Top with last layer.
7. Cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting. Decorate with fresh berries, if desired.
8. Enjoy!