Baked: Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Cherry-Lavender Compote

As regular Baked readers know, I recently espoused my love not only for a lovely cherry-lavender hand pie recipe, but also for the excess filling the recipe leaves behind. That sweet, floral substance inspired me to create a classy dessert for a dinner party. I opted for this sinfully dark, but not-too-rich chocolate cake.

This recipe is largely a classic chocolate cake except buttermilk is replaced with red wine. The result doesn’t necessarily taste boozy. Instead, it’s a dense, richly flavorful chocolate cake, perfect for pairing with fresh whipped cream and compote. Any red wine, regardless of price point or type, produces unique flavor. I’ve used a cabernet sauvignon as well as a Malbec; even the Trader Joe’s “Two-buck Chuck” tasted great in this cake. And the best part of this recipe: You already have an open bottle of the perfect dessert wine pairing. Enjoy and happy baking!

Red Wine Chocolate Cake Adapted from a recipe by Smitten Kitchen Makes 1 9-inch cake

6 Tbsp. room temperature butter
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
¾ cup red wine
¾ tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. flour
½ cup high quality cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
Pinch kosher salt
¼ cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
2 cups heavy cream
Cherry-Lavender Compote (Recipe follows.)

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat a 9-inch cake or pie pan with nonstick spray.
• In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar 5 minutes, until combined. Add the egg, yolk, red wine and vanilla separately, beating well between each addition. Use a spatula to gently fold in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt until combined.
• Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool before turning it out of the pan and dust with powdered sugar.
• Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream and ¼ cup powdered sugar together with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Serve with the Red Wine Chocolate Cake, along with the Cherry-Lavender Compote.

Cherry-Lavender Compote 1½ lbs. cherries, pitted
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
Juice of one-quarter a lemon
½ tsp. lavender extract
A pinch plus 1½ tsp. table salt, divided
1/3 cup granulated sugar

• Coarsely chop the cherries and toss in a large bowl with the lavender extract, cornstarch, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and 1/3 cup granulated sugar. Adjust the sugar to taste.

This article appears in Readers’ Choice 2014.