Indulge in the cozy charm of the season with our tutorial on How to Make Mulled Wine Cake. This delectable dessert captures the rich essence of mulled wine in every bite, infusing your kitchen with warm spices and delightful aromas. Join us for a step-by-step guide to create this festive treat, perfect for holiday celebrations.
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00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Mulled Wine Cake.
00:08 That's right, I'm going to show you how to enjoy this festive holiday beverage in cake
00:13 form.
00:14 And don't worry if you haven't had or don't know what mulled wine is.
00:17 Okay, as long as you understand cake, you're going to be fine.
00:21 And to get started, the first thing we'll do is pour some red wine into a saucepan.
00:26 And we'll want to use something cheap, but not terrible.
00:30 And then to that, we will add a couple tablespoons of brandy, followed by a few classic mulled
00:35 wine spices.
00:36 And what I have here is some whole cloves, some whole allspice, and some star anise.
00:43 And we will toss those in and set our heat to medium.
00:46 And we will wait for this mixture to just barely start to simmer, at which point we'll
00:50 reduce our heat to low.
00:52 And we will let this cook for about 15 minutes to give those spices time to infuse into our
00:57 wine.
00:58 And of course, if we were making actual mulled wine, we'd be adding a lot more things to
01:03 this, like sugar and orange zest and cinnamon and ginger and things like that.
01:08 But since those ingredients are going to go into our cake batter, this is all we're going
01:12 to need to add at this point.
01:14 And that's it.
01:15 Once that's been on low for about 15 minutes, it is ready to use hot like this in our batter,
01:20 which we're going to put together in a minute.
01:22 And then whatever is left over, we will let cool.
01:24 And we'll use that to make an incredible red wine icing.
01:28 And that's it.
01:29 Once our wine is set, we can move on to make one of the easiest cake batters ever, which
01:33 starts with some all-purpose flour, to which we will add a little bit of cocoa.
01:38 And not really enough to call this a chocolate cake.
01:40 OK, here we're using it more like a spice.
01:43 And then we'll also need to add some brown sugar, as well as its good friend and neighbor,
01:48 white sugar.
01:49 And then we'll definitely also need some salt, as well as some baking soda.
01:53 No, not baking powder, baking soda.
01:57 And then we will spice this up with some cinnamon, as well as some ground ginger.
02:01 Plus, since this is basically a spice cake, we'll also do a few shakes of cayenne, which
02:07 might seem odd, unless you've seen any of our previous videos.
02:12 But anyway, once all that's in the bowl, we will take a whisk and we'll mix this together
02:16 for about 30 seconds, just to make sure everything is evenly distributed, before we introduce
02:21 our wet ingredients.
02:23 Starting with the least wet, which would be some freshly grated orange zest.
02:28 And then we will finish up with some vegetable oil.
02:30 And sure, if you want, you could use melted butter instead.
02:34 But personally, I do prefer the oil.
02:36 And then we'll finish up with a couple large beaten eggs.
02:39 And once that's in, we're going to give this a stir with our fork, starting off slowly
02:43 at first, so as not to knock everything out of the bowl.
02:46 And we are only going to stir this for about a minute, or until basically all that flour
02:50 disappears.
02:51 Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, we're supposed to cream the fat and the sugar first,
02:56 and then slowly whisk in the eggs until everything's light and fluffy.
02:59 And then eventually sift in our dry ingredients.
03:02 But here we're not doing that.
03:04 Right, this is what we call in the business a "rustic cake," which is chef speak for something
03:09 that's not quite as good, but way, way easier.
03:13 And having said that, don't worry, even with this simple technique, it is still an amazing
03:17 cake.
03:18 In large part to this next and last ingredient, which is about two-thirds of a cup of our
03:22 still hot mulled wine.
03:24 Oh, and if you make your wine component ahead of time, just go ahead and heat it back up
03:28 before you add it.
03:30 And basically, once that hot wine is mixed in, our batter is done.
03:35 And if you're thinking, "Wouldn't this be a lot easier with a whisk?"
03:38 Well, you know what, I had that exact thought right about here.
03:42 So I grabbed a whisk and cleaned off my spatula, and then continued mixing until I was looking
03:47 at a nice, shiny, relatively smooth batter.
03:51 And once we do have something that looks like this, we can transfer that into our prepared
03:55 cake pan, which was generously oiled and has a round piece of parchment paper in the bottom,
04:01 which I didn't show how to do this time, but I just did that in a recent cheesecake video.
04:06 And I will add a link to that at the end of this.
04:09 And then once our pan's been battered, before it goes in the oven, we'll go ahead and give
04:13 it the old tapa tapa, and maybe even sneak in a quick old shake-a-shake-a, just to help
04:20 settle things down and bring bubbles up to the surface.
04:24 At which point it's ready to transfer into the center of a 350 degree oven for about
04:29 25 to 30 minutes, or until it probably looks like this.
04:35 But it is really hard to tell if a cake is done by looking at it, so we'll test it with
04:39 a skewer or a toothpick.
04:41 And if it's done, that should come out virtually clean.
04:43 Okay, if it has a bunch of raw batter on it, put it back in and give it a few more minutes.
04:48 But if it is done, and mine was, we will let it sit cooling on this rack for 20 minutes
04:53 before we attempt to remove it.
04:55 All right, if you do it too soon before it sets up, it can break.
05:00 And once that has rested and cooled down a bit, we'll place a plate over the top, and
05:04 we will very carefully turn this over.
05:07 And then we'll go ahead and peel the parchment paper off the top, which by the way is really
05:11 the bottom.
05:12 So once that's been removed, we'll go ahead and put our rack on top and carefully turn
05:16 this back over, so that the real top, which was on the bottom, is now on top.
05:22 And then before we ice this, we're going to want to let it cool down all the way to room
05:26 temp.
05:27 So we will let it sit on this rack to continue cooling, while we move on to make a very simple,
05:32 but fabulous red wine icing.
05:35 And for that, all we need is a couple cups of powdered sugar, and we'll transfer in about
05:39 three tablespoons of our cooled mulled wine.
05:42 And we will give that a whisk to form an absolutely gorgeous icing that has the perfect consistency
05:48 to drizzle over the top of our cake.
05:51 And if it seems too thick, just add a little more wine.
05:54 Or if it seems too runny, add a little more sugar.
05:57 But somehow, someway, we'll want to end up with something that flows like this.
06:02 And that's it.
06:03 Once our cake is cooled, we can apply that to the top.
06:06 Although before we do, I recommend putting something under the rack to catch the drips.
06:12 And my favorite way to apply this is just by letting it drip right off the whisk, as
06:16 we sort of shake it back and forth, creating whatever kind of pattern we want.
06:20 Oh, and remember when I said we should let this cool down before we ice it?
06:24 I didn't actually do that, and this was still a little bit warm, which really isn't a huge
06:29 problem.
06:30 But what'll happen as you apply the icing is that it's going to pool up in the center,
06:35 where we have that little depression that formed as the cake cooled.
06:38 And having all that icing in that low spot will cause it to kind of saturate into the
06:42 cake, which I don't think is a problem taste or texture-wise, but it will affect the appearance,
06:48 so I wanted to point it out.
06:50 And while you can go for total coverage, I think this is going to look nicer and much
06:54 more provocative if we see some of that beautiful cake peeking through.
06:58 So I'm going to go ahead and stop right here.
07:01 And that's it, once we're happy with how that looks, we'll go ahead and transfer it onto
07:04 a serving platter.
07:06 And then once we top a cake with an icing like this, we have to let it sit until it
07:10 dries out and firms up, but that's only if we want the best, neatest results.
07:15 So if you want to slice into this while it's still flowing, feel free.
07:19 And I think this icing is so gorgeous, we probably don't need anything else.
07:23 But despite that, I decided to go ahead and dust over a little bit of cocoa, just to create
07:27 a little bit of contrast.
07:29 And then for a final, final touch, we could top this with an edible flower.
07:34 But of course, that kind of stuff is up to you.
07:36 I mean, you are after all the boss of your wine cakes gloss, and you could do something
07:41 like a little bunch of grapes instead.
07:44 And after doing that, I grabbed a knife and cut out a nice piece.
07:48 And for now, I'm going to go ahead and enjoy this as is, even though it is spectacular
07:52 with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
07:55 But anyway, I went in for a taste.
07:57 And that, my friends, for such a dead simple recipe, really is an absolutely delicious
08:02 bite of cake.
08:03 All right, this is wonderfully tender and moist, with an extremely interesting flavor.
08:08 Okay, it really doesn't taste like red wine, but it also doesn't not taste like red wine.
08:14 Which makes sense, because what that wine brings is some sweetness and acidity, which
08:19 works perfectly with all those warm holiday spices.
08:22 So basically, if you enjoy cake, and you're a fan of the annual glass of mulled wine,
08:27 I really do think you're going to love this.
08:30 But even if you're not a fan of mulled wine, or you're not even sure what that is, I think
08:35 you're still going to love this cake.
08:37 And that goes for any time of the year, but especially around the holidays, when all these
08:42 smells and flavors seem even more appropriate.
08:44 Oh, and before we sign off, let me show you one quick extra trick.
08:49 If we make some extra mulled wine, and bring it to a boil with an equal amount of sugar,
08:53 and then let that cool, we can use that to soak our cake before we ice it, or just apply
08:58 to a slice like this.
09:00 And that's going to give us a much more pronounced mulled wine flavor, and obviously some extra
09:05 moisture.
09:06 So just a little extra thing I wanted to show you.
09:09 And yes, even though it's two ingredients in one step, we will include those instructions
09:13 in the written recipe.
09:15 But whether you do that or not, I think you're going to love this very unusual and gorgeous
09:20 mulled wine cake.
09:22 Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon.
09:26 So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
09:31 more info as usual.
09:33 And as always, enjoy!
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