Wine doesn’t only belong in savoury pans. Folded into a chocolate batter, a fruity red deepens the cocoa with dark-berry notes and keeps the crumb wonderfully moist. It’s the kind of cake that tastes faintly mysterious — people can never quite place it.
Dust it with icing sugar for an everyday slice, or finish with a red-wine ganache when you want to show off.
- Reach for
- a fruity dry red — Merlot, Zinfandel or Grenache.
- How much
- 175ml (a generous glass).
- What it’s doing
- it deepens the chocolate with dark-berry notes and keeps the crumb moist and tender.
- No open bottle?
- 175ml strong brewed coffee or red grape juice. Less complex, but still a lovely moist cake.
Ingredients
Serves 8
- 175g (¾ cup) butter, softened, plus extra for the tin
- 200g (1 cup) caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g (1½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 50g (½ cup) cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 175ml fruity dry red wine — folded into the batter
- To finish: icing sugar, or a red-wine chocolate ganache
Method
-
Heat the oven to 175°C / 350°F (160°C fan). Butter and line a 20cm round tin.
-
Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
-
Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt.
-
Fold the dry ingredients into the batter in three additions, alternating with the red wine.
Alternating wet and dry, and stopping as soon as it comes together, keeps the crumb tender — overmixing makes it tough.
-
Scrape into the tin and bake for 30–35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
Start checking at 30 minutes — a slightly underbaked centre keeps it fudgy.
-
Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out. Dust with icing sugar, or spread with ganache once cold.
Use the rest
Got a final splash in the bottle? Simmer the last of the bottle with a spoon of sugar into a syrup and brush it over the warm cake for extra moisture — or freeze it.
Pour alongside: a small glass of the same red. Make ahead: keeps moist for 3 days in a tin, and freezes well.