If I wasn't trying to replicate a cake, there are a lot of possibilities. My white cake has 1 c milk. I wanted to keep as much as I could, less the reduction. I thought I would make the batter without the milk, use the reduction to taste and fill in with the milk. This is a base for the only cake that I use with a simple syrup, so I know it can handle the syrup. That cake is good with no frosting, so I don't want to veer too far off of that base recipe. I am really going to try to see if the strawberry will be something that interests her. I use a line of gourmet strawberry jam that I could add to the middle filling.

Jen, I have that book and Boozy Baker. I get ideas from them, but end up doing my own thing. As I said in an earlier post, I don't do novelty alcohol flavors. When I add Makers Mark, the cake is better than if I used vanilla. I use it in my Boston Cream Pie (cake). I did make an Absinthe cupcake as a novelty, but it turned out really good. In that recipe, I used the sugar cube and lit the Absinthe. The result was an anise/licorice flavored reduction in the IMBC frosting with the resulting Absinthe syrup brushed onto the chocolate cupcake. That was how I got the idea for this reduction. I can't drink alcohol without getting a headache, but a few years ago, I financed revamping my construction company by bartending at a casino. I loved it. I used to smell the aroma of the vast amount of flavors and go home and make desserts. For example, Nuts and Berries... Frangelico and Chambord. I think it is on my menu. I rarely bake alcohol in a cake. It is usually brushed on and/or in the frosting and filling. I flavor ganache too.

There is more information in this thread than on the web. You can find plenty of recipes that aren't scratch and plenty that just don't look right. I think Pink Champagne IMBC returns nothing.

I think we are going to do very well with this one. I'm bummed that I have too much to do until Saturday. Tonight I had one 9 inch chocolate to make. But no, I decided to completely redesign my IMBC recipe and I had to play with a new decorating toy. I started at 10 and ended at 130. Oh well, I had fun and the results were worth it.

Is anyone trying the Mimosa cake?

I went to the liquor store today and bought my $25 bottle of Cointreau. I wanted to sub GM, which I always have on hand, but after a quick google, I found that GM is brandy based and Cointreau is neutral based. So I bought it. When I got home, I smelled both. The Cointreau had a very nice pure, strong, orange aroma, where the GM was heavier and spicier. I always smell vs. taste because the smell gives you a better indicator of the taste in food.

I just finished my big order. I hope between orders and 300 jumbo chocolate chip cookies for my daughter's school fair, that I will do the Mimosa cake .

I found a bottle of Barefoot Pink Moscato. It was described on the label as fruity and sweet. So I think this may work for all of the cakes in this thread.

I will try to make it this Sunday. I totally forgot that my daughter's 3rd b-day party is this Saturday so I have been trying to prep as much as possible for it. I didn't have enough Champagne on hand to test snarkybaker's cake. I did make Warren Brown's IMBC and I must say that is AWESOME!! I always thought it was more difficult than SMBC (what I usually make) but it isn't!!

I have two champagne cakes I want to test:

snarkybaker's and the one from playinghouseblog. com

I'm baking the Mimosa cake tomorrow. I purchased Robert Mondavi's Moscato.

Susan, I agree with you...there are 2 liquors that I never pinch pennies on and they are Cointreau and Chambord.

There really is a difference between the "name" brand and the cheaper brands.

I'll report back tomorrow about the Mimosa cake.

cakestyles- I can't wait to find out how it tastes!!

cakestyles... and Bailey's.

I bought my orange for the zest and I found the moscato di asti, so I'm ready to do it. I think curd and syrup tonight. Then the cake hopefully tomorrow night.

I hope the base cake works because I still need a plain version or one with strawberry filling for my client. But I think I will call her and give her a big slice of this Mimosa cake and see what she thinks. I haven't even bothered to price out this cake yet. The pint of Cointreau will only make three cakes because 3 tbsp go into the buttercream.

Oh of course, how could I forget Bailey's. lol

Tigachu~I'll post a picture too...too bad we don't have taste screens on our computers.

Susan, if you notice in Snarky's comments she notes that the buttercream is a high yield recipe...enough to ice 4-10" cakes. I'm not going to make the full recipe because I'm just making one cake...I'll make a 6 eggwhite amount with 1lb of butter.

Same goes for the Cointreau vanilla bean syrup...I'm cutting that in half as well, it should be more than enough for 1 cake.

Right, cakestyles. I read that too. I'm thinking of making it a two layer 8" cake. Did you see the 10 x 3 pan size? I don't want that size. I'm thinking of torting the layers, but splitting the curd between two of the layers. I didn't look at the syrup, but I know for my Bailey's cake and coconut cake, I use 1/2 c and that is quite enough to soak. I also use a six to 7 1/2 yolk/white buttercream for that size cake. It allows for some piping.

I've made the curd and the syrup. Thought I'd post my changes.

For the syrup, I don't have beans because I make my own extract. I combined a little homemade extract and a tiny bit of vanilla bean paste. Because I didn't need my bean to steep, I cooked the syrup to 220 right away. I let it cool before I let the extract or the Cointreau touch the syrup. This stuff is really good.

Now for the curd. She never told the amount of concentrate. She just said be generous and make sure it has a good bite. 2/3 like in the recipe was too mild. I went up to about 1 c and added 2 tsp more cornstarch to compensate. I like to be generous with the cornstarch anyway. It never hurts and always helps. The curd is excellent. It's cooling now.

I did half the syrup and it is still probably enough for more than two cakes. I made the whole curd recipe, but I will make corrections after I assemble the cake. It wasn't a huge amount. But because I upped the flavor, I will be able to use less and keep the layers more stable. I think with the curd, I would have this cake cold for transporting and maybe a center straw? Any suggestions?

I'll make the layers tomorrow in between 240 4" chocolate chip cookies... just the dough.

So far I've made the syrup (1/2 a batch), I too used vanilla bean paste and my own homemade vanilla extract. I did the same thing as you Susan, I cooked it to 220, let cool a bit and added the Cointreau and Vanilla ext/paste. It smells and tastes wonderful. The 1/2 batch is more than enough for 4 tort 8" layers.

For the curd I really wanted a strong orange taste, so I added about 2-3 T of orange zest and a good generous full cup of the OJ concentrate, along with 2T of cs. It tastes wonderful.

I baked 2-9" (2" pans) and the layers both rose to within 1/4" of the top of the pan. I knew I probably wouldn't get full 2" high layers, but it's okay since this is for our family dessert this evening.

I think 2-8" pans would be perfect for this recipe. That's actually what I intended to use but I realized I had greased my 9" and I was too lazy to wash them and do the 8". lol

Making the IMBC now...I'm a little concerned with the amt of liquid called for between all of the liquers and the champagne. If I add liquor to my merinque buttercreams I usually reduce them first.

Does anyone have any experience adding this much alcohol to IMBC?

I was thinking I'd leave the champagne out and just use the Cointreau and Cacao.

Wait cakestyles!!!! There is way too much liquid going in that IMBC. I reduced the moscato by 50%. I took it from 1/2 c to 1/4 c. On the IMBC, I used 5 eggs, 4 sticks of butter, the entire reduction of Moscato, 2 tbsp of Cointreau, and 2 tbsp Cream de Cacao. It was a lot of liquid, but I needed it to get the flavor, especially the Moscato. I think next time I will reduce the Moscato even more.

I bought the orange, but forgot the zest. But with the added concentrate, I didn't miss it.

This is a test cake, so not a pretty one. I sliced off a sliver of the cake, cut it in half, brushed it with syrup, added a little buttercream to make a barrier for the curd, layered a small amount of curd, topped it with the other half of the sliver, and added the IMBC. I have four layers, but this was just for tasting. I think I'll make little rounds to stack for a picture and for my client. I can always cut a six inch round to complete... or a 4 inch.

Overall it was a really good, refreshing cake. I did not, against my better judgement, let the Moscato become fully flat and I did get some big bubbles. It didn't indicate it in the directions on this and many other cakes, but Lisa said it had big holes and she was right.

I think the cake is much lighter and more refreshing than my white cake made with milk or the other with white chocolate. But it does need a simple syrup for flavor. There is not much flavor on its own. This cake, because of the curd, is definitely an orange cake. It really was no different in time to make it than any other cake with a filling. The cost is high to buy the ingredients, but they go farther than I originally anticipated. The Cointreau in the IMBC is higher, but the syrup goes far. I'm freezing mine. The Moscato was only $7.00.

Now I will make this cake again with the same recipe, using the pink Moscato and a tiny bit of food coloring. I think I will get a strawberry liqueur and copy the simple syrup recipe. For the frosting, I will pull some aside and add extract and liqueur to make it strawberry. Here I will add pink coloring a little deeper than the cake. This will be the filling. For the frosting, I will use the champagne reduction, strawberry liqueur, and maybe the cream de cacao again. I'll keep this white.

Cakestyles, just add the reduction of the champagne to the finished IMBC and give it a spin. I really may take it close to a 75% reduction. The taste is there. Without it, it was just a Cointreau buttercream.

In European buttercreams, my rule of thumb is 1 tbsp liqueur for each stick of butter. This doesn't compromise the stability of the buttercream. I don't reduce the good stuff in buttercreams, but I didn't care about the Moscato.

That's exactly what I did with the Moscato, it seemed like way too much liquid as originally written without reducing it.

I made 1/2 batch of the IMBC and added the 1 1/2 T each of the Cointreau and Cacao and I ended up with about 2T of the reduced Moscato.
It's really delicious. I'll assemble the cake in a bit and take a picture of the slice this evening.

Susan, did you end up baking 2-8" layers?

I'm Jeanne, by the way! lol

Here's a photo of the finished slice...my son't friend came over so I let him try the first piece. He loved it...of course he loves all food, he's 22.

I took a little bite because I didn't want to ruin my appetite before dinner and it's a very light, fluffy cake and the orange flavor really shines through nicely. It would be a great summer cake.

I also like the taste of the Moscata much better than the Bruts I've tried in the past.

What the heck, the photo didn't attach.

I clicked on "add an attachment", "browse", I found my photo and added it to the box, then clicked "add attachment" and nada!

Anyone know how to put a photo in a post? I'll keep playing with it and hopefully it'll work.

Jeanne, I just got back from the liquor store and got a liqueur called Frangoli, a strawberry liqueur. So I'm ready for the next flavor.

When I tasted my sliver, I found that I put too much curd on the layer. I made it a little layer and it was more balanced.

Yes, I did use the 8" pans and it came exactly flat and to the top. This recipe is very balanced and quite sturdy. I expected delicacy in such a light cake. I'm definitely going to offer my adaptation of this cake.

On the syrup, I think it is way too much syrup to Cointreau. I think I'll cut the syrup by about 25% so that the Cointreau can be more front and center.

Since I haven't put together the whole cake, I can't decide on four layers, to use two layers of curd or one. I'm thinking two thin layers for the looks.

Did you notice that she mentioned vanilla in the instructions on the buttercream? I didn't do it because mine would overpower the other flavors. What did you do?

Jeanne, I've never bothered to add photos so I can't help you. I will put mine on my site by tonight or tomorrow. I'll pm you the link. But I am looking forward to seeing your cake.

I would love to see the photos, too! I wish I could make this cake right mow, too. I am so excited!

It is a nice sturdy cake, I was pleasantly surprised by that as well. But even though it was sturdy it almost reminded me of an Angel food cake, it was so light.

I tort my layers and I assembled as I do all of my tiers..
cake
curd
cake
IMBC
cake
curd
cake
So 4 layers of cake, 2 layers of curd and 1 layer of IMBC in the middle for stability. It makes a very pretty presentation.

I did notice the vanilla reference in the IMBC directions, and I did use about 1 t of my vanilla paste because I really love the little bit of "crunch" from the beans that it gives to the IMBC.

Overall I think it's a very nice recipe and I'll consider adding it to my flavor list with a few tweaks.

I think I'd like some orange zest in the cake because it really added a lot to the curd. I agree the syrup could use a bit more Cointreau, so I'll adjust that as well.

I ended up having about 8oz of syrup leftover, so I froze it in 2-4oz containers for future use. (this was 1/2 recipe)

I used most of the curd because it was so delicious.

I can't seem to figure out the photo attachment, I'll try to PM you a copy of the photo.

I can't wait to hear how your strawberry version comes out. I think it will be delicious.

I've been thinking of a peach/orange combination using this recipe, similar to I guess a "fuzzy navel" cocktail. I have some fresh peaches, I may have to try that next.

Well ladies, I couldn't even get a photo to post in a PM so I decided to put it on photobucket and post a link.

http://s1110.photobucket.com/albums/h447/cakestyles1/?action=view¤t=P9090492.jpg

I started a thread in the technical forum about not being able to post an attachment in a thread, so hopefully someone from the site will see it and fix the problem

Ummmmmmmm! How come I can't taste it?!?!! We need to get tasteavision on here! Looks delicious, Jeanne. I've been following the thread and can't wait to try some of these recipes, but it'll be awhile as I have a birthday cake and a baby shower cake coming up here shortly and I don't have time to play....darn!!! I'm also gone every weekend until November, so makes baking a bit hard with all the other chores I have to do. Did your also frost it with the IMBC? Ohhhh! I'm getting hungry for cake!!!

hehehehe I know we really do need tasteavision!

Yes I used the IMBC recipe posted by Snarkybaker, but I reduced the Moscato down to about 2 Tablespoons and it worked out great.

I know what you mean about not having time to play...I wanted to bake this over the weekend but my "weedy" gardens were begging for my attention. lol

Jen, thank you so much for posting that and explaining how you did it!

hey, thank YOU, because I'm SO making this cake!

I was so exhausted that I fell asleep like a normal person last night. I just got up to start my cookie dough marathon again.

The cake is sitting unassembled in the bakery. In between the cookies, I'll assemble, but my cake is going to look just like Jeanne's.

Did your cake have the few bigger holes here and there? I let it go half flat, but am thinking the whole way next time. Did the vanilla overpower the Cointreau in the frosting? My vanilla is 16 beans/2 c vodka, so it is a powerful addition.

I am definitely going to add this to my menu with adaptations. I'll write a short blog post with a link to her bakery site, thanking snarkybaker.

My daughter is going to take pre-vet in college and this fall we are visiting her two college choices, VA Tech and NC State. While we visit NC State, I plan on stopping by snarky's bakery, thanking her if she is there, and patronizing her shop.

I wonder if our versions are better than Victorian Cake Co.? I emailed my customer to meet her tonight for a slice of this cake. I found out she is allergic to strawberries so I will get her input for her particular cake, but in between the cookies, I'll make the strawberry one and report on the strawberry liqueur, which, by the way, was $20 for the pint. But the manager said that this particular liqueur was used as a pairing with champagne. So I'm on the right track.

Yay, a success!! I plan to try this one late this weekend or mid week. I can't wait! Thank you for posting your results and adaptations. I want to thank snarkybaker, too. That cake looks delicious