Isn’t wine brilliant?!

Well, yes. Of course it is. Unless you’re tee-total, in which case, this might not be your…erm…cup of tea.

It’s a wine cake. I love wine. I love cake. Why not combine the two! This is a red wine chocolate cake recipe that will give you a rich, but surprisingly fluffy cake with a deep red/brown colour. It tastes decadent and is definitely for grown ups!

Chocolate and Red Wine Bundt

Inside the bundt

6-cup bundt

This cake was created for the Clandestine Cake Club Manchester City Centre gathering on 18th September, but this was a tester cake that I took into work. They don’t mind being guinea pigs! I used a 6-cup Bundt for this trial cake, but have given you the recipe and method for a full size bundt (12 cup).

The 12 cup, Jubilee bundt for Manchester Central Cake Club

Ingredients
– 225g plain flour
– 230g butter or margarine
– 2 large eggs
– 250g caster sugar
– 100g dark brown sugar
– 75g cocoa powder
– 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
– ½ teaspoon cinnamon
– 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
– ½ teaspoon salt
– 300ml red wine – I used a Negromaro currently available in Aldi, but anything dry and fruity should work.

Method
Grease and flour your chosen tin. Preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan).

Pop the butter and sugars into a bowl or mixer and beat on a high speed for a few minutes, until pale and fluffy. Even though you’re using dark sugar you should still notice the mix going much paler.

Turn the speed down to low. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until combined.

Sift together all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, bicarb). Add in a third of the flour, then half the wine. Mix well on a low speed, then add another third of flour and the rest of the wine and mix again. Finish with the last of the flour. Be careful not to over-mix – I find it easier to do this stage by hand.

Now spoon the mixture into your prepared tin and give it a bit of a wiggle to make sure there aren’t any air pockets. Bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes, after which time you can test it with a skewer or other such implement. It may need a little longer depending on your oven. This is a moist cake, so don’t worry if it takes 60+ mins. It should be coming away from the sides slightly.

Leave in the tin on a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes, then turn out onto the rack and allow to cool completely.

To serve, dust with cocoa powder or icing sugar, or drizzle with a yummy chocolate sauce!