Rotweinkuchen (Red Wine Cake)

The red wine in combination with cinnamon and cocoa makes this cake perfect for winter time. It is a classic German bread, but beware, don't try to sneak in more wine than the recipe calls for. If the dough is too moist, the cake will collapse after baking, and will show moist stripes in its interior. Also, this cake is great to use up leftover or not very tasty wine.

Ingredients:

Baking form

Grease

Flour

200 g butter or margarine

100 g sugar

1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

A few drops of rum aroma

1 pinch of salt

3 eggs

200 g flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (optional)

1-2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

50 g almond meal or chopped almonds

100 ml red wine

100 g chocolate, chopped into smaller pieces

Topping:

Confectioner's sugar

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). Grease baking form, then line baking form with flour to prevent the cake from sticking.

2. Whisk butter or margarine until soft, add sugar and vanilla sugar or vanilla aroma and salt until sugar has dissolved. Add one egg at a time and mix in each egg for about 1/2 minute.

3. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and almond meal. Alternating between flour mixture and red wine add ingredients in two portions to the batter. Lastly, briefly stir in the chocolate pieces.

4. Pour batter into baking form and bake for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). After 10 minutes cut the cake lengthwise about 1/2 inch deep, so that it can fold open nicely during the remaining baking time. Bake cake for another 40 minutes.

5. Remove cake from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. To remove cake from baking form, flip the baking form upside down on a cooling rack. The cake should come out easily. Turn cake back up, and let fully cool down. Sift some confectioner's sugar over the top.

Comments:

1. For this recipe is is crucial to only use the indicated amount of wine (see comment above).

2. The original recipe only calls for baking powder. However, based on experience from making muffins I added some baking soda. Baking soda is used when acidic components (lemon juice, buttermilk, vinegar) are used. Because wine is also a mild acid I tweaked the recipe and added some.

3. I used 50 g of chopped chocolate and 50 g chocolate chips. The chopped chocolate melts during baking adding some color and flavor to the entire cake. The chocolate chips on the other hand are designed to not melt entirely leaving some chocolate to bite on.