Red Wine Is The Secret To Totally Amped-Up Chocolate Cake

When asking bakers about the secret to a perfectly moist and flavorful chocolate cake, you'll find an array of responses. Some will pull out marked-up paper copies of their grandmother's family recipe; others will point you to the precise cocoa to buy. Though preferred methods and ingredients differ when it comes to making the ultimate chocolate cake, there's often one common denominator: liquid. A great chocolate cake batter incorporates additional liquid (usually water, buttermilk, or coffee) compared to other cakes to thin out the batter so it's less dense, add extra moisture, and also to activate chemical leaveners.  But have you tried adding red wine to chocolate cake? 

Many of us have experienced the delight of pairing wine and chocolate — the deep, rich fruity and roasted notes of chocolate perfectly compliment the spiced, tannin goodness of a glass of red wine. When added to chocolate cake, red wine adds both flavor depth and moisture. 

The fruity, warm-spiced, and earthy notes imparted from the wine enhance the chocolate in the recipe. Additionally, red wine is quite acidic (with a typical pH range between 2.5 – 4.5). When added to cake batter, it activates the chemical leaveners, such as baking soda or powder (which have a basic pH), so that tiny air pockets can form and expand in the heat of the oven, giving rise to a cake that is soft, fudgy, not overly dense — and intriguingly flavorful.

To incorporate red wine into chocolate cake, add it to the batter along with the other wet ingredients. In Smitten Kitchen's red wine chocolate cake recipe (via The Kitchn), butter and sugar are creamed together, then three-fourths a cup of red wine is mixed in with the eggs, and vanilla to combine. Finally, a sifted dry ingredient blend of flour, cocoa, leavening agents, salt, and cinnamon is added and mixed to complete the batter.

Upon transferring the cake to pans and into the oven, then baking to perfection, you'll find that the result is a decadently rich chocolate cake with hints of fruity spice. Though some of the alcohol is baked off, a significant portion remains, giving the cake an added boozy hint (depending on how much red wine the recipe calls for). 

The fermented and acidic nature of wine also reduce some of the structural integrity of the crumb of the cake, resulting in a somewhat fudgier chocolate cake compared to those made with other liquids. 

Feel free to use whatever wine you like or have on hand to pour into your cake batter. However, if you have a little extra time to think about how you'd like your chocolate cake to taste, when choosing the right wine for cake, the same wine and chocolate pairing rules apply. 

Select a velvety Bordeaux with smooth, jammy notes of blackberry and cherry to add fruity depth a dark chocolate cake that's not overly sweet. For a wine that imparts delicate spiced notes and hints of soft floral undertones, go with a good Pinot Noir. To add elements of wood and oak, pour in some Cabernet Sauvignon.  

To lean into the flavors of the wine, sub in red wine for the water in homemade chocolate cake with red wine glaze, or add two to three tablespoons of merlot to creamy buttercream frosting to coat the cake.