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October 23, 2010

Two celebrations, two flavors: Wine and Chocolate Cake



Our two-month crazy period has finally ended! At least for a month ahead, no more trips out of town, no more weddings, gigs, big events that require driving 6 hours straight, flying or staying away for sleepless weekends. We are home!


Our only desire now I to spend a couple of months relaxing, working on our new home, spending time with our friends, and also alone. We started well this week. We both had a lot of work but we also managed to have a nice, quiet dinner with Nat and Terrell, our two dear friends that you “met” at my pfb competition dinner. Nat and Terrell’s birthdays are in the same week so we could not have a better way to inaugurate our new (first) dining table than with a dinner. It was a very low key dinner, with bread and cheese as starter and gnocchi as main dish. A bottle of wine and the evening was perfect. (It was a Wednesday night and we all wake up early so eating and drinking too much was not a good idea anyway)


The cake could not miss of course! I have chosen which cake I wanted to make for these two amazing guys 3 weeks ago, when I came across the recipe for a “Drunk Cake” at Muffin, cookies e altri pasticci, an Italian blogger that does spectacular desserts! We loved the cake. The only remark I have is that I was hoping I could taste the wine a bit more. I think next time I will put more wine :)

Wine Chocolate Cake
Ingredients

300 gr (10.65 oz or 1 and ½ cup) sugar
200 gr (7.05 oz) butter, at room temperature
70 gr (2.5 oz) cocoa powder
100 ml (3.4 fl zo) red wine, of good quality
150 gr (5.1 oz or 1 cup and 2 tbsp) all purpose flour
4 eggs
15 gr (3 tsp) baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees and grease a bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, the butter, the cocoa powder and the red wine at medium speed. Pour the mixture into a pot and make it melt on a low flame. In a few minute the mixture will be pretty liquid. Make sure you do not burn it though!

When the mixture is liquid, set aside 1 glass (around 170 ml) of the mixture and put the rest back into the bowl.



Add to the mixture in the bowl the eggs, the flour and the baking powder.

Pour the final mixture into the bundt pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Unmold the cake on a cooling rack and pour the mixture you set aside. Let the cake sit for at least one hour so that the wine mixture gets absorbed before serving.

Have a sweet day!

28 comments:

  1. Wow!
    The Cake looks so delicious..
    Thanks for sharing.

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  2. the cake sounds and looks great
    happy birthday to Nat and Terrell, hope you get to relax as much as you wish now the the crazy period is over

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  3. it looks really great, we cook the cake this way but put soda inspite of wine:)

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  4. Looks great... I guess if you wanted to taste more of the wine - why not have some in your ganache? Just a thought... or make a wine sauce with it...

    LeeYong rolfmester@yahoo.com

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  5. @Cafe Pepela: thanks for stopping by!
    @gringarl: we are keeping our commitments at a minimum...we really need to rest...and bake!
    @yesim: oh yeah soda is an alternative but I'm not a big fan of it...not as much as I am of wine :)
    @anonymous: the wine is in the mixture you pour on top but I think I might need a wine with a stronger taste next time

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  6. I'm so glad I found your blog, I absolutely love the drunken chocolate bundt cake you adapted from an Italian blogger. Yours is a deeper chocolate, and the photos make me crave to make this, since I have all the ingredients, including the bundt pan.
    I am now following your blog, when you get a chance, please visit mine and hope you will follow too!

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  7. What a cool cake! A drunken bundt cake sounds like a lot of fun. Sending some Happy Birthday wishes to Nat and Terrell! :D

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  8. Happy you finally have some time to nest - autumn is perfect for nesting too. :)

    Love this simple cake! I once tried a chocolate red wine cake (I think it was German) and I was impressed by the excellent flavor.

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  9. This looks incredible! I have been dying to bake with wine! Thanks for sharing this recipe!

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  10. It's gorgeous, just gorgeous! I am glad things are more relaxed for you now, enjoy the downtime.

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  11. Wow, Sara, that's beautiful. I made one with port and it had good wine flavor.

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  12. Brilliant beyond belief. Wine in cake? Where do I sign up? Loves it.

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  13. OH MY WORD wine + chocolate cake = love! Your cake look soooo good and I can't believe you put wine in it. I love you! (well you know what I mean, haha!)

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  14. That is my kind of cake...beautiful :)

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  15. Beautiful bundt cake! I grew up with a very similar cake in Germany (we call it Rotweinkuchen, which translates to red wine cake) and this post brought back fond memories :o)

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  16. I thought I already commented on this--I certainly have drooled over my keyboard enough! Love the combo of wine and chocolate. How can you go wrong with that! The pictures are beautiful, too. :-)

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  17. Hi Sara,

    I couldn't take my eyes off the moist and chocolate wine drizzle is a perfect final touch !
    Wine for drinking and wine in dessert, I couldn't think of a better mid-week birthday celebration. :D

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  18. I've had wine cake before, but not with chocolate. This takes the cake to a whole new level! YUM...

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  19. This cake looks wonderful. I really enjoy using red wine in sweet desserts...then again I really really like red wine in my glass a lot too.

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  20. Awesome! I've actually never has wine in cake. Desperate to try it!

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  21. I saw wine and I saw chocolate so I obviously had to check it out :) I totally would have checked anything you made out anyways but these two ingredients had me hooked! This sounds delicious.

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  22. This is a very very naughty cake...and I mean it in the best possible way!! I LOVE that you added two of the best worlds into one drooltastic, sexy grown-up chocolate cake!

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  23. I'm not actually sure a better cake could exist than one with wine and chocolate. Awesome! As much as I love traveling and busy weekends to look forward to, I also love the deep breath I think we all take when a busy season ends and you can kick back and relax a little. Enjoy the down time :)

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  24. Vado matta per il cioccolato e trovo fantastico l'abbinamento con il vino!

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  25. Welcome home! this cake looks gorgeouss! I love the glaze on it

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  26. Thank you guys! I'm actually enjoy the down time (and I'm not even blogging that much!). This cake is a must-do-again really.
    @Tania: figurati che a me il cioccolato non piace ma il vino nell'impasto gli ha dato un gusto cosi particolare che mi sono mangiata due fette di questa torta!
    @Sarah: I'm so glad to be home. I wish I was also not working for a week but...oh well...i can't ask too much!

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  27. That cake looks delicious. A great way to celebrate a non-crazy life [though sometimes, that's the one that's most fun :) ]

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  28. Wow! I've never heard of wine in cake before - love it! Beautiful cake!

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