Looking for a New Year’s Eve Cake that’s elegant and delicious? Here is the perfect cake to bring in the new year.

This New Year’s Eve cake is made with soft champagne cake layers scented with orange and creamy champagne buttercream. It’s all tied together with festive fondant decorations that’ll help you countdown to midnight.

When you think of New Year’s Eve, champagne and caviar come to mind. This cake doesn’t have caviar, but it has champagne cake layers and creamy champagne buttercream. Typically champagne doesn’t have a strong flavor after you bake with it, so as a compliment, you’ll add orange zest. The fresh citrus brings out the light notes of the sparkling wine.

And I am obsessed with these fondant decorations. This makes me excited to teach you because it’s excellent practice when you are making a custom cake. You can use these same techniques for a Steampunk or Doctor Who cake or a baby shower with the stars, or an Alice in Wonderland inspired cake. I know you’ll get s much value from this tutorial. I can’t wait to get started!

Tips for Success:

Read through all the ingredients and instructions so you can get a better idea of how much time and what you need to make this cake.
A single batch of this cake recipe makes three, 6-inch round cake layers or two 8-inch round cake layers. Double the cake recipe to make enough cake batter for three 8-inch cake layers.
In this cake recipe, you need 1 cup Champagne; you substitute it with buttermilk.
To make cake flour at home, mix 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour and ¼ cup cornstarch. Sift or whisk together to get rid of any lumps.
Be careful not to overmix this cake batter, or else the cake will come out dense. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.
You can bake the cake layers ahead of time. Wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap and freeze up to one month.
You can make the buttercream a day ahead and refrigerate it overnight. Then take them out to come back to room temperature. Make sure the buttercream is at room temperature before re-whipping.
If you want to get ahead, you can make the fondant decorations up to one week in advance and store onto a parchment-lined baking tray until ready to use.
If fondant gets too sticky, then use cornstarch or if it’s cracking, then use vegetable shortening to smooth out fondant.
Serve at room temperature and use a hot knife to get clean cake slices!

What Tools You’ll Need to Make This Cake:

5-quart, Stand Mixer with mixing bowl & paddle attachment
3, 6-inch cake pans or 2, 8-inch cake pans
Offset spatula
8-inch or 10-inch white cake board
Serrated knife or cake leveler
Turntable
Cake scraper or bench scraper
Whisk or sifter
Rubber Spatula
Non-Stick Cooking Spray and Parchment Paper
Ice Cream Scooper with Trigger Release (for dividing cake batter evenly)
Piping Bags (I use reusable silicone bags)
Round Piping Tips
Cake Stand, optional
Black Fondant
White Fondant
Yellow Fondant
Silicone mat
Small Fondant Rolling Pin
18-gauge covered wire
Wire cutters, optional
X-acto knife
Circle cutters
(Clay) Molding Tools
Small paintbrushes
Edible black pen
Small star cutters
Gold Luster Dust
Clear alcohol like vodka or lemon extract
Vegetable shortening & cornstarch
Parchment paper lined baking tray

Here’s how to make this New Year’s Eve Champagne Cake that’s elegant and delicious!

Let’s Get Decorating!

How to Make NYE Fondant Decorations

On a silicone mat, knead and roll out white fondant to ¼ inch thick and cut a 3 ½ inch circle. Then knead and roll out black fondant to ⅛ inch thick. Place the white fondant circle on top attached with water and cut the black fondant to create a ¼ inch border around the white fondant. Set aside to dry on a parchment-lined baking tray.
Carefully write the numbers of the clock on the fondant with an edible black pen.
Knead and roll out a thin rope of black fondant and create the hour and minute hand for the clock’s face. Then roll it more long thin ropes for the details of the clock like the chain.
Roll the black fondant into a ⅛ inch thick and cut 20 circles of various sizes. Use a smaller circle cutter or piping tips to cut out the centers to create rings.
Then use small piping tips to cut semi-circles out of the rings’ sides to create the gear shapes. And use little piping tips to make holes in the circles to complete the clock gears. Set aside a baking tray.
On a clean silicone mat, knead and roll out yellow fondant to ⅛ inch thick. Cut out stars of various sizes and insert wires into the stars. Set on the parchment paper.
In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon gold luster dust and 1-2 drops of clear alcohol like vodka or lemon extract and mix until you have a paint-like consistency.
With a small paintbrush, paint the gold on the black border and chain of the clock. Pain half the black gears gold and paint all the stars gold. Set aside to dry for 4 hours or overnight.

How to Make Fluffy Champagne Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Spray three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray, line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper, and spray again. Set aside.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk and stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In the stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, and sugar on medium-high for 5 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, to the stand mixer bowl and beat on medium until well incorporated.
Turn the mixer on low and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until fully incorporated.
Pour in the champagne and vanilla extract. Add orange zest.
Mix on medium for another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Evenly distribute the cake batter among the three cake pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.
Remove cakes from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes before inverting onto cooling racks to cool completely. Wrap cakes in plastic wrap and place them into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

How to Make Creamy Champagne Buttercream

In the stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Turn the mixer to low and add the salt and vanilla.
Next, gradually add powdered sugar, followed by the champagne. Mix on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Before using, turn the mixer on low and mix for 2 minutes to push out any air bubbles or use a rubber spatula to push out the air bubbles. (You may need to repeat this step when frosting the outside of the cake).

Putting It All Together

Remove the cake layers from the freezer and unwrap the cake layers. Next, use a serrated knife to cut off the cakes’ dome to make the layers flat and even.
Add a small amount of buttercream onto the center of the cake board. Layer one cake layer, cut side up onto the cake board. Pipe ⅔ cup of buttercream and use an offset spatula to smooth the buttercream layer.
Place another cake layer cut side down over the top. Repeat the process for another layer — Crumb coat with white buttercream and freeze for 30 minutes.
Add a thicker layer of buttercream to the cold cake. Use an offset spatula and cake scraper to make the sides and the top as smooth as possible.
Add the clock and gears to the sides of the cake. Then insert the gold stars into the top of the cake.

Happy Holidays!

P.S. Hey, if you liked this tutorial, you really should check out Cake Decorating for Beginners, my online cake program. I coach you on everything I teach on these cake tutorials so that you can uplevel your baking and decorating skills. We 10x it so you get the results you want most. Like any new skill, it’s important to learn from the ground up to build a foundation so that you can take on any cake challenge. It is an investment your future self will thank you for. Check it out at XOKatieRosario.com/online-cake-course. I will see you there!

Watch The How-to Video Below:

Print Recipe