Let Her Eat Cake: Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Red wine in a cake may sound strange, but in fact it's a classic. Add some orange zest and spices and you've got a wintry mulled wine cake. There's plenty of wine left over for the chef to drink, so make sure you use a decent bottle!

Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

You'll need:

For the cake

• 200g butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 300g plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4tsp ground cloves
• 1/4tsp ground nutmeg
• 50g dark chocolate, grated
• 30ml red wine
• Zest and juice of an orange

For the icing

• 150g butter
• 350g icing sugar
• 2tbsp cocoa powder
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• Milk

Make it!

• Preheat the oven to 180c / Gas 4. Grease and line a 20cm tin.
• Make the cake by beating together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
• Beat in the eggs, one by one.
• Sieve in the flour, baking powder, cocoa and spices.
• Stir through the grated chocolate, red wine, orange zest and juice.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until cooked through.
• Leave to cool. Meanwhile, make the buttercream.
• Beat the butter until soft, then beat in the icing sugar, cocoa and spices.
• Add milk until the icing is a spreadable consistency.
• Ice the cake - you can split it and sandwich it together with icing and dust the top with icing sugar or just smother it all over.