ROOTS & WINGS

13. ROOT: Großmama's Nut-Chocolate-Red Wine Cake

This is the first "root" in Roots & Wings.

My Großmama used to make this cake on most festive occasions for the cake buffet – yup, we Germans love our handmade diabetes for our birthdays and holidays, no matter which holiday.. And, since there was mostly a truce in my turbulent to warring family for these (few) days at a time, I have mostly good memories of them.

Concerning holidays: yes, I made this baby on Good Friday for Easter. The next day I was mortally ill with a nasty cold, and kept it in the fridge at 0°C / 32°F until last Sunday when a bit of taste made me take it out and try it. And...

The B- with this one, though, is that – although I remember the taste like it was yesterday (Großmama died 15 years ago) – neither she nor my parents were "preservers" in the sense of writing their bloody recipes down.

They just cooked and baked it – and left the searching and digging for remotely similar recipes to me.

BUT – I'm one lucky gal! I found a recipe for this cake in a collection called Last Minute Baking. (Yup, only in German.)

And guess what? It ALMOST tasted like the ORIGINAL.

Basically, this is an ordinary chocolate-nut cake, but it's made special by the red wine. The alcohol evaporates while baked, but the wine's aromas stay, and merge with the dough.

Since I used Italian Puglia, these aromas ranged from earthy => fruity, which created a unique taste, not to mention made the cake super juicy. (Unfortunately, I baked it a bit too short – afraid it would burn / end up overbaked – so it also got super crumbly.)

I say "almost tasted like the original" as Großmama of course didn't use Puglia but German or French red, which due to the unique soils on which they grow have different tastes and aromas.

BEWARE: Großmama used a bundt pan for most of her cakes, but I wasn't too lucky with mine – like ßlυҽყҽʐ 🤍 coat turned "evil" on her in "That Stupid Coat" , my bundt pan turned evil on me. Kein Sch..., guys, whatever I tried to make with that poop, no matter how thoroughly I greased and floured it, it always destroyed what was in it. Okay, you could eat everything, it didn't kill the taste, but stuff looked like a bomb went off in a molehill.

Long story short, I used one of my loaf pans for it. Also I ditched the chocolate icing, as already the "main" cake was sweet enough for me.

So, and now you surely wanna know how this yum is made, right?

Well, off to the kitchen then!



Serves: +/– 20 servings Or one 30 x 11 cm / 11,8 x 4.3 in loaf pan

Prep Time: 1.5 - 2 hrs PLUS cooling off time.

Degree of Difficulty: Intermediate




WE NEED


100 gr / 3.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate 70 % cocoa

250 gr / 2 cups & 1 tbsp flour Here the NUT-part comes from as Großmama used floured nuts, instead. For this baby I floured 50/50 hazel- / walnuts in the food processor.

1 tsp ground cinnamon Only CEYLON as the cheaper CASSIA contains too much Cumarin that at regular use can damage your liver

2 tbsp cocoa powder PURE cocoa powder; Nestlé cocoa drink powder doesn't count
1/4 tsp ground vanilla. Don't like vanilla, so I used ONLY the below-mentioned vanilla sugar
1 pck. vanilla sugar
1 pck. baking powder
250 gr = 8.8 oz. = 2 sticks butter PLUS 0.5 - 1 oz. for the pan.
175 gr / 3/4 cup sugar
5 eggs M-sized. If you're using L+ eggs then only 4 eggs

175 ml / 6 US fl. oz. red wine of your choice. Puglia is insofar "good" that it's a light, fruity but not-to-sweet wine.

80 gr / 2.75 oz. grated bittersweet chocolate 70 % cocoa. And I "grated" (better chopped) it in two rounds in the food processor. Don't do it in one round as the chocolate then is half-chopped and half-floured, where you want ALL chopped.

80 gr / 2,75 oz. chopped almonds The same as with the chocolate. I "chopped" whole almonds in the food processor.

Salt


IF you want to make the ICING:

200 gr / 7 oz. dark chocolate couverture
chapped & / or roasted nuts if some are left from the cake and you fancy it.




WE DO


PREP:


A) cube the butter into a large bowl and let it gain room temperature (= soften).

B) Mix the flour(ed nuts) – which you blitzed in your food blender / bought floured – with cinnamon, cocoa powder, vanilla (if you use it) + baking powder.

C) Slowly, melt the chocolate in a double boiler / bain marie.

D) Separate the eggs. Be CAREFUL. I MEAN it. Because if the egg white is contaminated with even a MU of yolk you can't beat it into the white foam needed.

E) Chop your almonds in the food blender and gently roast them on middle heat in a pan. They're done when they start to smell.



1. Preheat the oven to 175°C / 350°F top- / bottom heat. If your oven doesn't have that function, 160°C / 320°F fan/convection Put a piece of butter into your pan, briefly heat it in the oven, then grease your pan. EVERY last corner if you use a bundt pan. Finally, scatter your pan with flour. OR: use 1-2 pieces of baking paper. So you can lift the cake out of the pan when it's done.


2. Beat the butter with a hand blender / Kitchen Aid. Add sugar + vanilla sugar and beat until the mass is foamy. Add the egg yolks one-by-one, beating each at least 30 seconds.


3. Alternating, mix in flour mix + red wine. I did quarter each ingredient. Then add the melted chocolate, and then the chopped chocolate + almonds. Lastly, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and carefully fold them into the batter with a spatula


4. Fill the batter into your pan and bake it for 60 - 70 minutes in the middle of the oven. It's done when a tooth pick stuck into the middle of the cake comes out clean. That must NOT be the case after the indicated baking time, since every oven is different and it therefore can take longer/shorter. When you fret over it getting burned (or overbaked) – the reason I prematurely took it out although it wasn't done yet – put aluminum foil on top and do a tooth pick test about every five minutes.


5. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Then either turn over the cake or lift it onto the cake rack with the baking paper to let it cool off completely.

IF YOU'RE MAKING THE ICING: melt the couverture in a double boiler / bain marie – NOT in the microwave, although it may say so on the packaging. In that case it most likely BURNS, which you don't want – and pour it over the cake. If you have some left, and you fancy it, decorate it with chopped nuts.


GUTEN HUNGER!