Red Wine Chocolate Cake

This rich, moist, and ultra decadent red wine chocolate cake recipe is absolutely perfect for holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions!

Red wine chocolate cake is the fancy dessert you need to try.

It’s just as simple to make as a regular chocolate layer cake, yet it tastes like something you’d order at an elegant five star restaurant.

Impress all of your guests with this velvety dark chocolate wine cake, topped with a thick chocolate frosting. People will think you went to culinary school!

Also make this Chocolate Mug Cake

Watch the red wine chocolate cake video, above

Red wine chocolate cake ingredients

You will need flour, cocoa powder, pure vanilla extract, sweetener, baking soda, salt, applesauce or yogurt, oil or almond butter, water, and of course red wine.

The easy chocolate wine cake recipe works with spelt flour or white all purpose flour. I have not tried it with any other flours and cannot vouch for the likes of whole wheat flour, gluten free flour, oat flour, or pastry flour.

There is a low carb option listed in the recipe box. For best results, do not try to substitute almond flour or coconut flour here.

For the three fourth cup of cocoa powder, you can use all regular unsweetened cocoa powder or one fourth cup of Dutch cocoa powder and half a cup of regular.

To make a vegan red wine chocolate cake, use a dairy free yogurt or the applesauce. This cake is already naturally butter and egg free!

Use leftover wine to make Chocolate Sorbet

What type of red wine?

When baking with wine, feel free to use your favorite red wine.

Try this dark chocolate cake with merlot, cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, syrah (or shiraz), Chianti, malbec, tempranillo, or pinot noir. Strong red wines will impart a bolder flavor to chocolate red wine cake recipes.

I prefer the traditional taste of the chocolate cake with red wine, because chocolate pairs so well with red wine. But if you want to use white wine, this is fine as well.

Choose a variety of wine you enjoy, and maybe pour yourself a glass of wine while baking. Be sure to drink responsibly.

How to make a red wine chocolate cake

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two eight inch square or round pans. Or see below for baking instructions in a Bundt pan.

In a large mixing bowl, stir the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, sweetener, and optional chocolate chips.

If you are using almond butter, gently heat it if necessary until easily stir-able. Combine it (or the oil) with the applesauce or yogurt, water, wine, and vanilla extract.

Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir until just evenly mixed. Do not over-mix.

Divide the chocolate cake batter evenly into the prepared baking pans. If using a food scale, it should be around 550 grams of chocolate cake batter per pan.

Bake the dessert on the oven’s center rack for twenty five minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out mostly clean.

Let cool, then go around the sides of the pans with a knife. Invert each cake onto a large plate. For a double layer chocolate wine cake, frost each cake separately before placing one on top of the other and then frosting the sides.

Chocolate red wine Bundt cake

If you wish to use a Bundt pan instead of two eight inch round cake pans, look for a Bundt cake pan that holds ten cups, such as this 10 Cup Bundt Pan.

Make sure to grease your pan well before adding the cake batter.

Chocolate Bundt cakes often require longer baking time. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake after baking for thirty minutes, and continue to bake the cake if the toothpick does not come out mostly clean.

This red wine chocolate cake recipe can also be made in one rectangular nine by thirteen inch pan instead of two eight inch pans. Or halve the chocolate recipe for a single eight by eight inch pan.

Frosting and decorating the cake

I frosted the red wine cake with my Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

Any store bought or homemade chocolate frosting will do nicely here, as will a vanilla buttercream frosting. Or use cream cheese frosting for a chocolate red velvet cake.

If you want to skip the icing completely, try topping the cake with a layer of chocolate ganache or a border of homemade Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

Or sprinkle with powdered sugar and fresh blueberries, cherries, or raspberries. Dark chocolate raspberry cake? Yes please.

Feeling glamorous? Let the chocolate ganache drip down the sides of the layer cake, and adorn the top with a few homemade Chocolate Truffles.

The great thing about this recipe is that the cakes do not rise considerably, meaning there’s no need to cut off the top before layering one cake on top of the other.

More Show Stopping Party Desserts

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

Deep Dish Cookie Pie

Chocolate Banana Bread

No Bake Cheesecake

Oreo Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Brownies

Keto Cheesecake