Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Whipped Mascarpone Cream

This cake and topping is from my daughter, Sarah via Smitten Kitchen, one of our favorite blogs.  She had made this cake back in 2011 when Deb Perlman had just posted it.  Sarah shared how delicious it was.  I made it for a dinner party shortly thereafter and totally agreed with my daughter.

But it has taken me this long to make it again, for yet another dinner party.  Still yummy.

I love the fact that it is a one layer cake with no frosting, that it is not too sweet (something you look for after consuming a few glasses of vino :)) , perfect for a dinner party and the whipped mascarpone and heavy cream topping is the ultimate accompaniment.

The wine and the cocoa powder are important.  Use a wine that you like to drink (maybe drinking it with dinner that night?) and use the best cocoa powder available to you.  These are my favorites:  Valrhona (you can also buy at Whole Foods) and Bennsdorp (King Arthur Flour).  After making many, many Chocolate biscotti (see  Triple Chocolate Biscotti in Recipe Index) and Chocolate Bundt cakes (see Baby Cocoa Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cakes in Recipe Index) for Holiday gifts this year, Hershey supermarket cocoa powder just doesn’t cut it.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Whipped Mascarpone Cream (from Smitten Kitchen https://smittenkitchen.com/2011/09/red-wine-chocolate-cake/)

cake:

6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup good quality red wine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

1/2 cup chocolate cocoa powder (the best you can obtain)

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

topping:

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cut a circle of parchment or wax paper, using your 9 inch round pan as a guide.

Spray bottom of 9 in round pan with canola oil spray.  Put 9 inch round parchment or wax paper round on bottom of pan.  Spray entire pan inside, bottom and sides with Pam Baking Spray with Flour or something similar.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl.  Set aside.  Combine egg, yolk and vanilla in a small bowl.  Set aside.

With an electric mixer or stand mixer, beat softened butter and sugars together for about 1 minute.  Add egg mixture and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

With the mixer on low, mix in 1/2 of the flour/cocoa mixture.  Beat until almost combined. Add half of the wine.  Repeat with the rest of the flour/cocoa mixture and wine, mixing until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and place into preheated oven.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes on a baking rack.

Then remove cake from pan, cooling completely.

Dust with sifted confectioners sugar when completely cool, if desired.

To make topping:

Place all ingredients into a medium size bowl.  With an electric mixer, beat together until soft peaks form.  Do not over beat.  This can be refrigerated for up to 4 hours.

Serve a slice of cake with a nice generous dollop of topping.

mis en place:

prep 9 inch round pan:

fluffy butter, sugars, eggs:

batter into prepared pan:

out of the oven and cooling:

yum!