A boozy cake for a booze filled celebration! What are all of you doing tonight for the last day of the year??! It better be fun, no excuses.
I am completely exhausted. Can you believe it? One more day and 2014 is over. Though rather hectic and exhausting, I am so grateful to have spent the past two weeks enjoying the warmth and company of friends and family because it is the absolute bestbestbest.
Over these last few days, I accompanied my other thirds to the shooting range and we later debated on how good our chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse might be. Stephanie’s parents took us to eat authentic Chinese food which consisted of dishes such as chili peppers cooked in chili pepper sauce, steamed buns with crispy duck, and my absolute favorite: fan tuan, essentially sticky rice wrapped around pork. Yaaaaahs. We played Celebrity Fish Bowl with my parents and the girls wore Disney Princess crowns and we learned that Team Princesses is > Team Prince Charmings. I also learned that one can send GIFs through iMessage and spent a good 20 minutes downloading a small army of them for future uses (how does one post GIFs on WordPress?! Don’t tell me… unless you want the next blogpost on here to be covered with them). Also we went clubbing for the first time in ages and I got a lot little bit tipsy and took one too many pictures with my gurlfrans.
I am a hoarder of fond memories and cherished moments. Since leaving the little island I grew up on for college 4.5 years ago, I have developed an obsession with capturing moments and memories. I collect them as something to look back on when I’m feeling a bit too far away, to help fill me up on days when I’m running low.
As this year comes to an end, I can’t help but worry over how much time I have left here where I feel safe and comfortable. One more week and I will return to Los Angeles and have to deal with the future and the unknown and it’s rather scary for a twenty-something year old who doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life.
But also…
As this year comes to an end, I can’t help but worry over how much time I have left here where I feel safe and comfortable feel excited for the unknown things the future will bring and how it will change me and what I will learn from them. In this new year, amongst the moments I am stressed or worried will be a million more moments in which I am thankful and happy. Thanksgiving is usually the holiday during which we celebrate what we are thankful for, but the New Year should also be a time where we reflect on what and whom our lives have been blessed with.
I am thankful for a good year, and I know 365.25 days from now I will also be thankful for 2015.
So, let’s raise a glass to this whirlwind of a year and the new year to come! Or rather, let us have a slice of Strawberries and Champagne Cake… because though it will not get you drunk, it’ll still taste just as good.
Prior to this New Year blog post, I had been wondering for sometime if one could successfully make a cake with Champagne. I mean there’s cakes made with rum and brandy and then there’s also tiramisu, but I have never had a cake made with champagne. Plus, many of the recipes I found online weren’t too promising which worried me because I do not have the professional cooking skills to create a cake from scratch without some kind of guidance!
Well, after several days of slave work over bowls of cake batter and a hand mixer that came close to overheating and died–and hours of giving my mother gray hairs because she hates a dirty kitchen (sorry mom), EUREKA! Champagne cake is good and it exists and here it is!
Strawberries and Champagne Cake
Notes: I recommend using a stand mixer with this recipe. If not, you can always split the ingredients in half and use a hand mixer.
This recipe makes four 6-inch cakes.
5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup butter
3 cups white sugar
2 cups champagne
12 egg whites
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 6-inch cake pan and line the bottom with a parchment round.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until pale in color and light and fluffy. Pour the dry mixture into the wet in several additions, alternating with the champagne. Mix until combined.
4. In another large bowl, whip the egg whites until they reach stiff peaks. Fold egg whites into the cake batter mixture.
5. Separate the batter into cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes. Make sure to place your cake pans on the lowest rack in the oven.
6. Spread strawberry jam between the cake layers and frost the outside with vanilla buttercream. I decorated the cake with stars cut out of fondant and a sprinkling of silver dragees. I also used a type of glitter called luster dust to paint on the shimmery gold/silver tint on the strawberries and fondant stars.