Red wine and dark chocolate cake

In celebration of Canberra Wine Week, I tasked Eat Canberra’s cake queen, Amy, (from Blossom and Pearl) with a very important job….. To create a delicious sweet treat for you to make at home, using local products! Let’s see what she came up with….Canberra Wine Week has officially kicked off for another year with wonderful events to tempt any foodie or wine lover.

To celebrate our local wine region and surrounds, I set about the satisfying task of combining two of life’s greatest pleasures – wine and chocolate. While this decadent cake is simple enough to make, I should warn you that you may it difficult to resist eating or drinking the ingredients before you get around to making the cake. If you can get past that hurdle, I guarantee that you will be rewarded with a rich, yet light, adult’s-only chocolate cake.

For this indulgent cake, I used a delicious 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from Joshua’s Fault at Gundaroo and Valrhona Manjari 64% dark chocolate from the good people at Enigma Fine Chocolates. Canberra Wine Week is on from 5 to 15 April 2018.

Red wine and dark chocolate cake
Makes one two-layer 8-inch cake. Serves 8 to 10 people.

Ingredients

For the cake

250g of plain flour
50g of dutch cocoa powder
1tsp of baking soda
½ tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
115g of unsalted butter (softened)
300g of caster sugar
1tsp of vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs
180ml of local red wine (I used a 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from Joshua’s Fault at Gundaroo)
180ml of whole milk
115g of good quality dark chocolate (melted and cooled) – I used Valrhona Manjari 64% dark chocolate from Enigma Fine Chocolates

Dark chocolate frosting

150g of unsalted butter (softened)
350g of icing sugar
15g of dutch cocoa powder
¼ tsp of salt
75g of good quality dark chocolate (melted and cooled)
75ml of thickened cream

Make the red wine and dark chocolate

1. Preheat your oven to 180◦C.
2. Grease two eight-inch cake tins and line with baking paper.
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set
aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
5. Add the caster sugar to the butter. Cream for 3 to 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
6. Slowly add the vanilla bean paste and eggs to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix until
combined.
7. Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk, red wine and dark
chocolate until combined.
8. Evenly divide the cake batter between the prepared cake tins.
9. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out of the centre of the cakes
clean. Set aside to cool.

Make the dark chocolate frosting

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, salt, dark
chocolate and cream.
2. Mix on a medium speed until light and fluffy.

Assemble the red wine and dark chocolate cake

1. Once the cakes are completely cooled, level them to ensure that the tops of the cakes are
flat.
2. Using a small amount of chocolate frosting, affix one of the cake to a cake board or plate.
3. Spread half of the frosting on top of the first cake.
4. Place the second cake on top of the first cake.
5. Spread the remaining frosting to the top of the second cake.
6. Finish with fresh berries.

Enjoy a glass or two of red wine with your dessert – you’ve earned it 😉

A big thanks to Enigma Fine Chocolates for supplying the chocolate for us to use for this recipe. 

About the author:

Amy Alyce is a Canberra based dessert blogger with a passion for brunch. By day she works as a lawyer, by night she writes recipes for her love project Blossom and Pearl. Follow Amy on Instagram at @blossomandpearl for dessert recipes and inspo!