Red Wine Chocolate Cake by Juan Juan Chen

 

 

 

 

 

Red Wine Chocolate Cake by Juan Juan Chen

 

Ingredients

85 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
160 grams dark muscovado sugar
50 grams caster sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
180 ml red wine, any kind you like
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
133 grams plain flour
41 grams Valrhona cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, freshly grated

Topping
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup chilled heavy or whipping cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the cake: 

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

 

Line the bottom of a 8-inch round cake pan with parchment, and either butter and lightly flour the parchment and exposed sides of the pan, or spray the interior with a nonstick spray.

 

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.

 

Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

 

Add the egg and yolk and beat well, then the red wine and vanilla. Don’t worry if the batter looks a little uneven.

 

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together, right over your wet ingredients.

 

Mix until 3/4 combined, then fold the rest together with a rubber spatula.

 

Spread batter in prepared pan.

 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

 

The top of the cake should be shiny and smooth, like a puddle of chocolate. Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, then flip out of pan and cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack. This cake keeps well at room temperature or in the fridge. It looks pretty dusted with powdered sugar.

Make the topping: Whip mascarpone, cream, sugar and vanilla together until soft peaks form — don’t overwhip. Dollop generously on each slice of cake. It can also be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 hours.

Notes:

*I didn't weigh the ingredients for the topping as I was trying to use up all my cheese and whipping cream.

Think I added slightly more cheese. I will reduce the sugar in future as I found the topping a little sweet.

*My oven is quite hot so I did reduce the temperature to 140°C and baked for 35 minutes instead.

Acknowledgements:

The recipe was adapted with only slight modifications from smittenkitchen.com