Red Wine Chocolate Cake

While making this, I tasted the batter and was surprised how good it was - the best batter I've ever tasted. So it seemed a good sign that the cake in baked form would be just as tasty. I didn't cook it quite long enough, so it ended up being a little gloppy in the middle. But despite the lack of perfect texture, the taste was phenomenal! A 5 star recipe, easily. This was shared among 7 and finished in one night. Will definitely make this again for any adult occasion. The original recipe is from smittenkitchen.

• 6 T butter, room temperature
• 3/4 c brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, room temperature
• 3/4 c red wine (I used Bin 555 wyndham estate shiraz)
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 c + 1 T flour
• 1/2 c Dutch cocoa
• 1/8 t soda
• 1/2 t powder
• 1/4 t table salt
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• Decoration: confectioner's sugar

1. Line the bottom of a 9" cake pan with parchment butter. Lightly butter the paper and the sides of the pan. It's a shallow cake, so no need to go very high.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter on medium speed, until smooth.
3. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy (3 min).
4. Add the eggs and beat well.
5. Beat in the wine and vanilla.
6. Sift the flour, cocoa, soda, powder, cinnamon and salt right over the batter. Beat lightly until 3/4 combined. Then use spatula to fold the rest of the batter. 
7. Spread evenly in pan.
8. Bake at 325F for 25 to 30 minutes. 
• Note: The original recipe says "The top of the cake should be shiny and smooth, like a puddle of chocolate." At 25 minutes, it looked like a puddle, but I believe it still could have used the extra 5 minutes - maybe then it would have still looked puddle like. 
9. Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes.
10. Flip onto plate and continue to cool.
11. Just before serving, sift some confectioner's sugar decoratively over top. Serve with remaining wine.

Notes

11/26/11 Made this again with another Shiraz (McGuigan Black Label). Not as good as the first time in terms of flavor, but I did bake it the full 30 minutes and it rose more and was fully cooked in the center.