Triple Chocolate Red Wine Cake
Layers of fluffy, delicious chocolate cake filled with smooth chocolate buttercream and topped with rich dark chocolate ganache drip—all infused with a flavorful burst of sweet red wine. This is a MUST for date night.
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Here it is: my Valentine’s Day cake. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t love Valentine’s Day, but I’m also not as opposed to it as I used to be. These days, I approach it like a kid: this is a day to just tell people I love them.
And what says “I love you” better than chocolate cake?
The answer would be red wine chocolate cake.
This is just my regular chocolate cake (the one that our friends started calling “Charity cake”) but with red wine instead of coffee. It’s very simple and doesn’t require a lot of effort. In fact, even with a frosting and ganache drip, it’s one of my easier, less time consuming cakes.
The frosting and ganache can be made ahead of time to make things simpler. Plus, it helps the flavors of red wine and chocolate become more vibrant after they’ve chilled for a day or two.
If you’re a red wine and chocolate fan, you need this cake in your life!
How to make triple chocolate red wine cake
Sift and whisk together your dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Don’t skip the sifting!
In a separate bowl with a pour spout, whisk the eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Whisk very well, until fully emulsified.
Heat up the red wine over medium heat, until very steamy and a few bubbles start to appear. You’re not cooking it down, just getting it to the temperature of hot coffee.
Slowly pour that into the egg mixture, whisking quickly and constantly so you don’t scramble the eggs.
Using the paddle attachment, turn the mixer to low and slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry. This should take about 30 seconds or so. The batter will clump up then thin out. As soon as everything is combined, immediately turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Then mix on medium for exactly 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes (less if using 6” pans), until a toothpick comes out with just moist crumbs.
While the cakes cool, make the red wine chocolate buttercream and red wine ganache drip (if you didn’t make them in advance—it only takes about 15 minutes to make both).
Fill cake with frosting and a drizzle of ganache, if desired (I was in a rush and forgot to do this).
Frost as smoothly as you can then chill the cake.
Once the cake is chilled, carefully create drip marks along the edge (I’m always hoping for the best each time, so I’m not an expert in how to do this best). Then fill in the rest of the top with ganache and spread it evenly. Chill the cake again to set the ganache.
Enjoy!
Tips and notes for this recipe
Use a sweeter red wine
Since you have red wine in all components of this cake, you want to choose one you like. While any red wine would work, I highly recommend a sweeter one to complement the chocolate flavors. For this cake, I used Cupcake Black Forest Decadent Red, which was sweet and rich and went well with the chocolate flavors.
Don’t skip stirring the frosting
This buttercream is a little more airy than most. Because of that, you want to be sure stir it until smooth so your cake is easier to frost. Otherwise, you’ll have little bubbles that pop and create holes all around your cake. It’s very annoying to fix this, as you have to spread thin layers of frosting firmly, chill it, then spread another thin layer with firm pressure and chill again. It’s a whole process and entirely annoying.
Chill the cake before creating the ganache drip
Because the drip is slightly warm, you want your cake to be very cold before you create the drip lines. I put mine in the freezer for 10 minutes, which is enough to really set the frosting without freezing the cake layers and making them dry out. This is important to ensure your clean edges aren’t ruined by the warm drip.
Make the frosting and ganache ahead of time
Because the flavors intensify with chilling, I recommend making the drip and buttercream frosting a day or two ahead of time. The buttercream just needs to be thawed on the counter then stirred once it warms up. The ganache can be put in a cup of hot water for a few minute when you’re ready to do the drips. Easy!
Not for children
There’s a whole science behind baked goods with alcohol. Theoretically the cake should have only minimal amounts of alcohol left. However, I can’t make any guarantees. The frosting and ganache, however, do still have alcohol in them. So, this is a dessert for grownups only. Which, if you have kids, you’ve learned to value those rare things your kids can’t steal off your plate even more. 😉
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Triple Chocolate Red Wine Cake
- prep time: 10-15 minutes
- bake time: 25-30 minutes
- total time: 45 minutes (plus about 20 minutes to make the buttercream and ganache)
servings: 12-16
Ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cups sugar (can reduce to 1 ¼ for a less-sweet cake)
- 1 ⅔ cups flour, sifted
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa or cacao powder, sifted
- 2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking soda, sifted
- ½ teaspoon fine ground Himalayan sea salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt, but sea salt gives a better flavor)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- ½ cup avocado oil (can sub grapeseed, vegetable, or canola)
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup sweet red wine
- one batch red wine chocolate buttercream
- one batch red wine chocolate ganache drip
Instructions:
make the red wine chocolate cake layers
- Preheat oven to 325*. Grease and flour two 8" or 9" round cake pans (or use baking spray). Line bottoms with parchment paper or silicone baking rounds. Note: I like to do 3 pans to make room for more filling without having to cut the cake layers in half. Likewise, if making a 6” cake, you need at least 3 pans or it won’t bake properly.
- In the bowl of stand mixer (or large bowl), whisk together first 6 ingredients, being sure to sift as instructed. I prefer using a hand whisk for this step as the whisk attachment doesn't always get the very bottom mixed in.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. In a small saucepan, heat the red wine over medium heat until very steamy and some bubbles begin to appear. VERY slowly, pour the hot wine into the egg mixture, whisking quickly and constantly to avoid scrambled eggs. Feel free to do it in increments if this is your first time.
- Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer (or using a hand mixer), turn mixer to low. Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry. It will clump up then settle into a liquidy consistency. After all ingredients are combined, scrape down sides, making sure to get to the very bottom. Turn mixer up to medium and mix for exactly 2 minutes. Set a timer so you do not overmix!
- Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. I highly recommend using Wilton Bake Even Strips to avoid a domed cake (or you can cut this off with a large, serrated knife and have a little pre-cake snack). Gently tap pans on the counter a couple times to get some of the bubbles out.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with just moist crumbs. Check bake halfway through. If not using a convection oven, rotate cakes at this point as well. Check again every 5 minutes to avoid overbaking--you want to remove the cakes as soon as no raw batter comes off on the toothpick and this is a narrow window.
- Cool in pans 5-10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack until completely cooled. While the cake cools, make the buttercream and ganache.
assemble the cake
- Fill and frost cake with desired amount of red wine chocolate buttercream. Optionally, you can drizzle some ganache on the filling before adding more cake.
- Chill until frosting is very set (or freeze for 10 minutes). Create drip lines by carefully pouring ganache along the edge of the cake, letting some run off in lines down the side of the cake. I’m no expert, so you don’t want a video of me doing it, but there are many out there! Chelsweets has my favorite drip tutorials.
- Chill cake for 10 minutes to set the ganache.
Enjoy! To keep cut cake moist, place a piece of plastic wrap right up against the cut edges then cover entire cake or place in an airtight container.