Red Wine Chocolate Cake

This Red Wine Chocolate Cake is super moist, baked with red wine and filled with a fresh raspberry buttercream! It’s decorated in such a fun way making it a great cake for Valentine’s Day or any occasion!

Looking for more chocolate cake recipes? Try my Best Chocolate Cake or this Hot Chocolate Cake!

Moist Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Let’s talk a bit about the cake. I used my very favorite moist chocolate cake and replaced the water with red wine. It is the moistest cake and I die every time I have it. Now it’s even better with the addition of red wine. The flavor isn’t over powering, but it’s unmistakably there.

The filling is a raspberry buttercream. Super easy to make and literally the perfect compliment to the cake. The combination of the raspberry with the chocolate red wine will literally cause you to close your eyes and moan. Sorry, not sorry. It’s true.

This cake had rave reviews from everyone! Even if you have no interest in decorating it like I did, you should absolutely make it. You could totally just frost it with the chocolate frosting and top it with some raspberries. You just need to make it – and eat it. Stat!

Does this cake really bake at 300F?

I’m often asked if the temperature listed in the instructions is an error. It’s not. The chocolate cake is a slow bake cake that bakes at 300F degrees. I’ve tried to simplify it by baking at 350F but it changes the cake. Go slow, my friends. The wait is torture, but it’s worth it.

How to Decorate this Chocolate Cake

If you are interested in the decorating part, let’s chat. The decor of this cake is actually inspired by Brittany May Cakes. Her sprinkle cakes are just so fun, so I wanted to add a bit of that to this cake.

To start, you’ll want to ice this bad boy like a champ. I can help you with that. I’ve got this great tutorial on How to Frost a Smooth Cake with Buttercream.

Once you’ve got your iced cake, it’s time to add your chocolate ganache drizzle!

How to Make Chocolate Ganache

If you haven’t made ganache before, don’t be intimidated. It really is one of the easiest things to make. You basically heat heavy whipping cream, pour the cream over the chocolate to melt it, whisk it all together and you’ve got chocolate ganache.

When your ganache is ready it will be fairly warm and thin. You want to let it sit for about 15-20 minutes, give or take, so that it has thickened a little but is still easily pourable.

Pipe the ganache around the edge of the cake (I like to use a squeeze bottle for that), then work quickly (so that the ganache doesn’t get too cool) and pour the rest of the ganache on top of the cake and spread it evenly to the edges.

You’ll want to let the ganache firm up a bit, then pipe a rope border around the outer edge. Brittany has a helpful video into her Insta Story highlights, if you want to see how to do it.

The next step is to add the sprinkles. Lots and lots of sprinkles.

Adding the sprinkles isn’t hard, but it does take some time. To add them all to the drip, I used tweezers and it took a little over an hour. You can totally skip this step, but it creates such a fun look!

Everyone Will Love this Cake!

When you’re done, you have a cake that not only tastes amazing, but looks amazing! The chocolate cake is incredibly moist and tasty with the addition of red wine and the raspberry buttercream filling is the perfect compliment for it. And even more awesome is that the pink frosting on top is all color that’s added from the raspberries. There’s no food or icing color used at all. Simple, delicious – a must make!

You might also like these cake recipes:

Red Wine Poke Cake
Drunken Chocolate Truffle Cake
Baileys Chocolate Cake
Best Chocolate Cake
Raspberry Chambord Chocolate Poke Cake
Strawberry Moscato Cake
Nutella Chocolate Cake
How to frost a smooth cake with buttercream
Funfetti Millionaire Cake
Bananas Foster Layer Cake
Chocolate Oreo Cake

Recipe

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

★★★★★ 5 from 6 reviews

• Author: Lindsay
• Prep Time: 3 hours
• Cook Time: 33 minutes
• Total Time: 3 hours 33 minutes
• Yield: 12-14 Slices
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

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Description

Moist red wine chocolate cake recipe filled with raspberry buttercream, frosted with chocolate frosting and covered in red wine chocolate ganache!

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Ingredients

RED WINE CHOCOLATE CAKE

• 2 cups (260g) all purpose flour
• 2 cups (414g) sugar
• 3/4 cup (85g) Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk
• 1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup (240ml) sweet red wine

RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM

• 6 oz raspberries (add 5-6 tbsp of strained puree)
• 3/4 cup (112g) salted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (95g) shortening
• 6 cups (690g) powdered sugar

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM

• 3/4 cup (112g) salted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (95g) shortening
• 5 cups (575g) powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup (57g) Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 5–6 tbsp (75-90ml) milk or water

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

• 6 oz (1 cup | 169g) semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• Sprinkles

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Instructions

1. Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom, and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl and combine.

3. Add eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Slowly add wine. Mix well.

5. Divide batter evenly between cakes pans and bake for about 30-33 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.

6. Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

7. While cakes cool, make icings. To make the raspberry buttercream, add the raspberries to a food processor and puree until smooth, then strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and shortening together until smooth.

8. Add half of powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

9. Add 3-4 tablespoons of raspberry puree and beat until smooth.

10. Add the remaining powdered sugar and beat until smooth, then add additional raspberry puree until it’s the right flavor and consistency. Set buttercream aside while you make the chocolate buttercream.

11. To make the chocolate buttercream, beat the butter and shortening together until smooth.

12. Add the cocoa and half of the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

13. Add vanilla extract and 3-4 tbsp of water or milk and beat until smooth.

14. Add remaining powdered sugar and beat until smooth, adding remaining water or milk as needed to get the right consistency of frosting.

15. When the cakes are cool, put the cake together. Remove the tops of the cakes with a large serrated knife so they are flat. See my tips on how to level a cake and how to stack a cake.

16. Place the first layer of cake on cake stand. Top with a cup of the raspberry buttercream and spread into an even layer.

17. Add second layer of cake and add another cup of raspberry buttercream and smooth into an even layer.

18. Top cake with remaining cake layer.

19. Frost the outside of the cake with the chocolate buttercream. Here’s a tutorial for getting a smooth finish.

20. To make the chocolate ganache, place chocolate chips in a medium sized bowl.

21. Microwave heavy whipping cream just until it begins to boil.

22. Pour heated cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for 2-3 minutes, then whisk until smooth. Allow ganache to sit for 10-15 minutes to thicken. You want the ganache to be pourable and spreadable, but not too thin (see my tips on making chocolate ganache).

23. Drizzle the ganache around the top edge of the cake (I like to use a squeeze bottle), then pour the remaining ganache onto the top of the cake and spread it evenly to the edges (see my tips on making a chocolate drip cake). Allow ganache to firm up a bit.

24. Pipe the remaining raspberry frosting around the top of the cake and bottom edge. I used Ateco tip 847 for the top border and Ateco tip 844 for the bottom.

25. Add some sprinkles to the top of the cake and add them to the ganache drips using tweezers. For more information on decorations, read through the post.

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Notes

*the shortening can be replaced with butter, if preferred.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 Slice
• Calories: 1102
• Sugar: 116.3 g
• Sodium: 539.7 mg
• Fat: 63.4 g
• Carbohydrates: 138.2 g
• Protein: 6.4 g
• Cholesterol: 90.5 mg

Keywords: red wine dessert recipe, chocolate cake recipe, valentines day dessert recipe, raspberry buttercream recipe

Enjoy!

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