Vegan mulled wine chocolate cake - this delicious chocolate cake is flavoured with red wine, spices and orange and is topped with a smooth vegan chocolate ganache. It is rich, soft, deeply flavoured and makes a perfect festive celebration cake!
This vegan mulled wine chocolate cake is richly flavoured, soft, moist and perfectly festive.
I adapted my popular vegan chocolate fudge cake recipe, replacing the milk with red wine and adding orange zest and spices to give it a delicious chocolate mulled wine flavour.
This is a very grown-up cake, not really one to serve to children, though the alcohol does cook off during baking.
The red wine gives it a beautiful depth of flavour, red wine and dark chocolate go so well together! The orange zest and spices make it taste like christmas and the texture is perfectly soft and moist.
What Do I Need To Make Vegan Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake?:
Red wine: red wine replaces the usual milk as the liquid in this cake. The variety is up to you, I use a malbec. Use one that you like the flavour of but there is no need to go expensive. Make sure that the wine is vegan friendly as lots aren't. I wouldn't use ready made mulled wine here as it contains sugar and would make it harder to balance the spices.
Light brown soft sugar: either light brown soft or muscovado sugar adds moisture and flavour to this cake but you can use caster or granulated sugar instead if you don't have any.
Oil: use a neutral flavoured oil such as sunflower or a mild olive oil. I wouldn't use coconut oil here unless you have no other option.
Vanilla: I basically add it to everything!
Vinegar: This cake uses the reaction between the acid from the vinegar and the bicarbonate of soda to help it rise. As the red wine is acidic I use less vinegar than I would if I were using milk but still add a little bit just to be sure.
Orange zest: I tested this cake without orange zest and the flavour was not quite right but with it it tastes amazing! Don't omit it!
Plain flour: just regular plain (all-purpose) flour is best here.
Cocoa powder: I use dutch processed. For those of you in the UK, that is just regular cocoa powder.
Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda: a mix of the two provides the best rise and light, soft texture.
Salt: I always add a bit of salt to baked goods, it tempers the sweetness a little and helps bring out the flavours.
Spices: I add cinnamon, mixed spice and ginger for a wonderful mulled flavour.
For those of you not in the UK, mixed spice is a blend of sweet spices which is used in abundance in festive baking. It is similar to pumpkin spice but uses a different blend and is less heavy on the cinnamon. See below for how to make your own.
For The Ganache:
Dark chocolate: I used a blend of Bournville and a 70% dark chocolate. The darker the chocolate, the richer and less sweet the ganache.
Vegan cream: You ideally need to use a vegan double cream alternative. I used Elmlea plant double cream which is perfect. Failing that you could use coconut cream.
Golden syrup: I add a little bit of golden syrup to sweeten the ganache a little. You could use maple syrup if you don't have golden syrup.
How To Make Vegan Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake:
(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)
To make the cakes, whisk together red wine, light brown soft sugar, oil, vanilla extract, vinegar and orange zest until well combined.
In a separate bowl, sift together plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon, mixed spice and ground ginger.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir with a balloon whisk until no dry lumps remain.
Divide the batter between two greased and lined cake tins and bake for about 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
To make the ganache, finely chop the chocolate and place it in a heat proof bowl.
Heat the cream and golden syrup together in a pan until it is almost simmering, don't let it come to the boil though!
Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and leave it alone for five minutes. Once the five minutes is up, very gently and carefully stir with a spatula until it is melted and smooth.
Leave the ganache to cool and firm up, this can take several hours depending on the type of cream and chocolate. You can pop it in the fridge to speed it up but check it frequently and give it an occasional stir. It can go from not-quite-set to solid quite quickly so keep a eye on it.
If the ganache does become too firm; place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don't let the base of the bowl touch the water). Stir for a minute or so until it softens up. Remove the bowl from the heat before it has fully softened to the right consistency as the residual heat from the bowl will continue to melt the ganache.
Once the ganache has reached a spreadable consistency, place one of the cake layers on a serving plate and spread over half of the ganache, place the other cake layer on top, spread over the rest of the ganache and decorate the cake as you wish.
Top Tips:
For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.
This is a very soft, delicate cake so in order to get neat slices you should use a hot, sharp knife to slice it. To heat the knife, pour boiling water over the blade then dry it and slice the cake. Wipe the blade clean between cuts and re-heat it as needed.
The ganache would be lovely with a dash of orange extract added along with the cream.
The cake would also be lovely topped with chocolate buttercream rather than ganache. An orange cream cheese frosting would also be amazing!
Decorate the cake as you wish, I used cranberries, rosemary, cinnamon sticks and star anise but if you want the decorations to be edible then it would look great topped with some iced star shaped gingerbread cookies.
How To Store Vegan Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake:
Once assembled, the cake will keep for around three days in an airtight container at room temperature. In cool temperatures the ganache will become quite firm (see tips above for how to get neat slices).
The cake layers can be carefully wrapped and frozen for up to three months.
How To Make Mixed Spice:
To make your own mixed spice blend, stir together 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp ground allspice, 2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp ground cloves.
Store the mixed spice in an airtight container and use in all of your festive baking!
More Festive Vegan Cakes:
Orange and almond cake with chocolate buttercream
If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess
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Vegan Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Cakes:
- 400 ml (1 ½ cups + 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp) red wine
- 300 g (1 + ⅔ cup) light brown soft sugar (or caster sugar)
- 160 ml (⅔ cup) neutral oil (I use sunflower)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cider or white wine vinegar
- finely grated zest of 1 ½ oranges
- 260 g (2 cups + 2 Tbsp) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 85 g (⅔ cup + 1 Tbsp) cocoa powder (dutch processed)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- ½ tsp ground ginger
Ganache:
- 300 g (10 ½ oz) dark chocolate finely chopped
- 270 ml (1 cup + 2 Tbsp) vegan double cream alternative (I use Elmlea plant double cream)
- 1 Tbsp golden syrup (or maple syrup)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease two 20cm/8in round cake tins and line with baking parchment.
- In a large jug, whisk together the red wine, sugar, oil, vanilla, vinegar and orange zest.
- In a large bowl, sift together the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon, mixed spice and ginger.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir with a balloon whisk until no dry lumps remain.
- Divide the batter evenly between the tins. Bake the cakes for about 35 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 20 minutes then carefully turn them out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely. They are very delicate, especially when warm, so be gentle.
- To make the ganache, place the finely chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
- Heat the cream and golden syrup together in a pan until it is almost simmering, don’t let it come to the boil though!
- Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and leave it alone for five minutes. Once the five minutes is up, very gently and carefully stir with a spatula until it is melted and smooth.
- Leave the ganache to cool and firm up, this can take several hours depending on the type of cream and chocolate you use. You can pop it in the fridge to speed it up but check it frequently and give it an occasional stir. It can go from not-quite-set to solid quite quickly so keep a eye on it.
- If the ganache does become too firm; place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don’t let the base of the bowl touch the water). Stir for a minute or so until it softens up. Remove the bowl from the heat before it has fully softened to the right consistency as the residual heat from the bowl will continue to melt the ganache.
- Once the ganache has reached a spreadable consistency, place one of the cake layers on a serving plate and spread over half of the ganache, place the other cake layer on top, spread over the rest of the ganache and decorate the cake as you wish.
Notes
- For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.
- This is a very soft, delicate cake so in order to get neat slices you should use a hot, sharp knife to slice it. To heat the knife, pour boiling water over the blade then dry it and slice the cake. Wipe the blade clean between cuts and re-heat it as needed.
- The ganache would be lovely with a dash of orange extract added along with the cream.
Donna
This looks amazing!! I’m definitely trying this recipe at the weekend. Thanks
Albertina
I just love this cake and I love it when I see people using wine used in baked goods! Thank you for this stunning and delicious cake recipe!