This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please read my disclosure policy.
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
Red Wine Chocolate Cake
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 33 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 33 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Moist red wine chocolate cake recipe filled with raspberry buttercream, frosted with chocolate frosting and covered in red wine chocolate ganache!
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
Instructions
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
Filed Under:
Enjoy!
Hello, I made a cake years ago and I’m sure it was from your website. It was a wine cake but not this one. The filling was less sweet and the ganache had wine. It was the best cake I’ve ever tasted and I want it dearly for an upcoming friends birthday. I’ve looked tirelessly. I’ve lost the card I wrote it on. Please please tell me you have the old recipie! Please message me with it! I’ve missed this cake for years
It may have been this cake. It’s been slightly updated, but the cake and filling are the same. The ganache did have wine, I believe. You could certanly replace some heavy cream with wine, if you’d like. I’m sorry, but I don’t have a copy of the original.
This is one of my go to cake recipes. Everyone loves it.
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad it’s a hit!
Do you think port wine would be ok? Made it one time and it turned out delicious. Will be making again in a few days but have no sweet red wine, only port wine which has a rich and deeper flavor.
If you like the flavor of port wine with chocolate, then it should be just fine.
Will try the Port, was just a little worried it would overpower the cake. Will let you know how it turns out.
I tried the cake with 1/2 cup port wine and 1/4 cup water. Turned out delicious!! Everyone raved about it and one friend said “I usually don’t like cake but I had 2 pieces of yours. It was so good”. Will probably use port wine from now on. Thanks for the fantastic recipe.
Hi Lindsay
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! It’s going to be the second time for me making this cake😊
I just have one question, how high are your cake layers usually?
Thank you!
I believe they are around an inch or so tall.