Vegan Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake
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!
Servings 12 people
Ingredients
Cakes:
- 400 ml (1 ½ cups + 2 tablespoon + 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 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon 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 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- ½ teaspoon 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 tablespoon 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.