The Special Bubbly Booze For Extravagant Strawberry Poke Cake
Few food pairings scream celebration and luxury quite like strawberries and champagne. When served in cake form, however, even a basic weekday afternoon can be turned into a special occasion. Thanks to Tasting Table recipe developer Jessica Monroe, we have the ideal dessert to present at backyard parties, summer dinners, and other momentous occasions that call for extra pizazz.
As delicious and refreshing as strawberry cakes can be when made using traditional recipes, the inclusion of champagne into both the cake and strawberry syrup can invite more elegance into your desserts. Regardless of the kind of champagne you use with your Strawberry Champagne Poke Cake Recipe, you'll be rewarded with a light, subtle flavor that brings additional airiness and brightness to the moist treat. To make the recipe, don't worry about popping open one of your most expensive, prized bottles of bubbles. You can use cheaper sparkling wines or experiment with some of the bargain bottles you pass by in the store. Monroe herself has used a bottle of champagne that she found on sale and admits the recipe turned out delicious.
Adding a taste of celebration
If you're worried about dumping alcohol into your cake batter, the composition of the mixture will change when placed in the oven, and a good portion of the alcohol will be cooked away. "You will taste the champagne in the cake, but it's a very light flavor and most of it is [cooked] out of the cake," Monroe assures. You'll only need about a cup and a half of champagne to finish the recipe, so if you happen to have Champagne leftover from last night's revelry, you can make good use of an open bottle. In just over an hour, you'll be replacing empty glasses on the kitchen table with an aesthetically-pleasing dessert.
The cake is called a poke cake, for small holes will be punctured into the cake so that your champagne-infused syrup will seep into every inch. Champagne is added to both the cake batter and the strawberry syrup that is drizzled on top of the baked, hole-poked cake. Once cooled, the cake is decorated with cream cheese frosting and garnished with sliced strawberries. Serve with flutes of champagne — or consider scooping the cake into glass flutes for an extra joyous and elegant presentation.