This chocolate red wine cake is everything you want in a chocolate cake. It combines rich chocolate with the deep, complex flavours of red wine and it's finished with a decadent chocolate frosting made with more red wine. Wine soaked cranberries add piquancy and a hint of luxury. It's a great way to use up any leftover wine you may have too.
Add the dried cranberries and leave to soak whilst getting on with everything else.
50 g dried cranberries
Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling water. Then leave to cool a little.
125 g dark chocolate
Set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
Cream the butter with the sugars until pale in colour and airy in texture.
250 g unsalted butter, 200 g golden caster sugar, 50 g dark brown sugar
Beat in the vanilla extract.
1 tsp vanilla extract
Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour if the mixture looks like curdling.
4 medium eggs
Sift in the flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt salt and stir gently to combine.
250 g flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 pinch fine sea or rock salt
Stir in the wine and cranberries, a little at a time.
Lastly stir in the melted chocolate until everything is just about mixed.
Divide the cake batter between two 20 cm (8 inch) round silicone cake moulds or lined tins. Bake them in the middle of the oven, or as near as you can get for 20-25 minutes or until they're well risen and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out more or less clean.
Leave in the moulds or tins for ten minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Buttercream
Cream the butter and sifted icing sugar together until light in colour and fluffy in texture.
120 g unsalted butter, 250 g icing sugar
Sift in the cocoa powder and beat it in until well combined.
40 g cocoa powder
Pour in the red wine and beat vigorously until the buttercream is light and airy.
75 ml red wine
Sandwich the two sponges with half of the filling and slather the other half on top.
Decorate as you wish. I scattered mine with pink hearts, pink sugar and pink shimmer balls.
Notes
Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used. Please refer to my nutrition disclaimer for further information.