Cake

Rotweinkuchen - Red Wine Chocolate Cake

10/23/2011 07:49:00 PM


Check it out! My Rotweinkuchen, or red wine cake, that I baked last night  Who doesn't love a bit of Saturday night baking?  I bake this cake reasonably often, and hadn't thought to blog it before now, as I tend to think of it as a bit of a plain, homestyle cake.  However, when I tweeted about it, I got lots responses from people interested in this unusual-sounding cake, so here's the post!

I actually have heaps of blog posts in draft, all in various states of completion - homemade almond danishes, rainbow cookies (rainbows!!!), a breathtaking 8-course degustation dinner at Embrasse, buffalo wings and more - which I'll be posting just as soon as I am able.  But for now, please enjoy this post about Rotweinkuchen!

I got this recipe from Sandra's mum - it's a light and fluffy chocolate cake with red wine in the batter, covered in a red wine icing-glaze.  As for the type of red wine, I don't think it really matters, as long as it's a dry one that you don't mind drinking - you only need about 180mls of wine in the cake, so you'll wanna be able to drink the rest.  Bonus!

The original recipe for the cake simply instructs you to "mix everything together and bake", but as you'll see from the recipe I included below, I split up the steps when I bake it myself.

There's no melted chocolate in the batter, just a little cocoa, which gives a lovely buff-coloured batter.

One of the key ingredients is Schokoraspeln, or those little chocolate sprinkles that you'd normally find on an ice-cream sundae.  Most supermarkets here sell them in the baking aisle.  I think of these little sprinkles as being sweet rather than chocolatey, but that fits in well with the light taste and texture of the cake.


I love bundt tins (I have two 16cm tins and a mini-bundt tray in addition to the 22cm one below), and have previously made this cake in a loaf tin, and as cupcakes.


Ta-dah! Here is the baked product.

If you don't feel like glazing, I think the cake would be just lovely with a dusting of icing sugar.  Having said that, the glaze isn't difficult, and I'm required to stick to tradition when I make it!

The original recipe only asks for red wine and icing sugar in the glaze, but I'm not a fan of the insipid lilac coloured glaze this makes.  I add a little cocoa powder to mine to get a nice matte brown.


Please excuse the mess in the background! I like to call it my "creative chaos", hehe.

And here it is, all glazed - a lovely, tender-crumbed cake with a hint of both chocolate and red wine.



Rotweinkuchen Red Wine Cake
A traditional German recipe, with slight adaptations by me

Cake
300gms plain flour
1 packet baking powder
2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
250gms softened butter
250gms sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar
5 eggs
125ml red wine
100gms Schokoraspeln

Glaze
1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4c red wine
Enough icing sugar to make a drippable glaze

Preheat the oven to 175C, and grease a 22cm bundt tin.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder, and set aside.  Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar together until the sugars are dissolved and the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Now, using a spatula or a wooden spoon, fold in the dry ingredients a third at a time, alternately with the red wine.  Finally, fold in the Schokoraspeln.  Pour the mixture into the prepared bundt tin, and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.  Cover with foil if it is browning too quickly.

Let it cool for 15 minutes in the tin before turning it out on a wire rack to cool further.  Glaze the cake while it is still warm, but no longer piping-hot.

To make the glaze, whisk together the cocoa powder and red wine, and gradually whisk in enough sieved icing sugar to make a smooth, drippable glaze.  (Alternatively, do this in the processor if you CBF sieving the icing sugar).  Spoon the glaze over the cake - you can either let it run in little rivulets down the lines of the cake, or spread it around the cake to make a thin, all-encompassing covering.  Let the icing set for 20 minutes or so before eating.

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12 comments

  1. yep, definately trying this! Have seen the recipe before but not with the red wine icing, but cream cheese! Will try both, my house is never without red wine!

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  2. Anonymous3:05 PM

    Did you use all-purpose flour or self-rising flour? Bleached or unbleached?

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  3. Hi anonymous- it's all purpose flour. In Australia we call all purpose flour plain flour :-) As far as bleached/unbleached goes, I've made this cake with both before and it worked out fine.

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  4. Love the look of this recipe - I think it sounds superior to red velvet cake, to be honest!

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  5. Anonymous5:03 PM

    Hi Sarah. This cake looks fabulous. Can you just explain what one packet of baking powder is or do you use a measured amount? Thanks!

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  6. Hi there Anonymous - in Germany they sell baking powder in little individual packets. I'd substitute 1 tsp baking powder. :)

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  7. It it will be a fantastic cake to bring to my co. bake day which is coming very soon

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  8. Oh YUM Iv never added wine to a cake before. Sounds and looks fab!

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  9. That looks like a mother of all bundt cakes!!!!! Sounds pretty delish too!

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  10. Sounds wonderful!! I have to make one but need the recipe translated into non-metric & would you tell me what "Schokoraspeln" is?
    Thank you!!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Liz, the definition of schokorapseln is included in the post - there's a picture too and a definition. As for translating the recipe into non-metric, there are lots of good conversion sites online, just google it.

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  11. Karin Brown4:42 AM

    I'm German and have made this cake here in the states for about 40 years now. My whole town(in Ohio) will be busy baking this loveley delight again for fundraisers during the Christmastime.
    The cake origenated in the Rhein area in Germany in the 14th. century. Girls during this time had to memorize 12 cake recipes before they very able to marry.
    BTW: Try glazing it with mocca ganache - "himmlisch".
    You have a great blog - Thanks.

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