Oma’s Chocolate & Red Wine Cake with Pears – a German Classic
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My Oma’s never-fail recipe for this moist Chocolate & Red Wine Cake with Pears is a real family classic. The flavours of red wine, chocolate, pears and cinnamon marry beautifully and make this cake the perfect treat for cold fall and winter days.
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This recipe for Chocolate & Red Wine Cake with Pears has a special place in my heart for several reasons. Obviously, the first two are chocolate and red wine ! The third reason is that it’s my German Granny’s recipe. She would make this cake for all family gatherings during the cold season and we would look forward to this special treat for days.
Her recipe is a fruity variation of the traditional German Red Wine Cake, an easy to make and very popular coffee cake with a rich chocolate red wine batter. A pinch of cinnamon adds a certain spice-cake-flair.
Granny’s Red Wine Cake is clearly a cake for fall and winter.We have two stand-out ingredients: Red wine for depth of flavour and dark chocolate for DECADENCE! There’s also a touch of cinnamon which adds a certain holiday flair to this luscious bake. Once in a while I also like to add some ground cloves and/or nutmeg to it – that’s optional. It is a very moist cake with a delicate crumb – beautiful on its own – so don’t worry about cream, custards or ice cream.
Let’s talk about the pears for a second. My granny swears by the canned stuff and so do I – it’s simple and it’s what works best in terms of texture and flavour. The important thing is to drain the pears well and blot them dry with a paper towel before you stick them into the batter.
My Granny’s recipe for red wine cake asks for 200 ml of red wine and half a can of drained pears. This makes the cake super moist but there have been incidents when the cake was so moist it would stick to the pan. This recipe is really a balancing act – you want as much fruit, red wine and chocolate as possible, but you also want to get it out of the bundt pan in one piece. What I do to make sure the Red Wine Cake is both extra moist AND presentable is the following: I add only 180 ml of red wine to the batter and soak the still warm cake with a little glaze made from powdered sugar and red wine. Like a drizzle cake – a red wine drizzle cake! Try it!
Really, I can’t recommend this recipe enough! Especially on a grey and foggy winter day, there’s nothing that cheers me up like the smell of a freshly baked Chocolate Red Wine Cake wafting though the kitchen! At this point, I need to warn you: Resist the temptation and let it cool completely before you unmold it. Take it out of the oven, apply the soaking syrup and STEP AWAY FROM THE CAKE.
I decorate the unmolded Red Wine Cake with a simple Red Wine Glaze made from red wine and powdered sugar. Chocolate shavings on top, naturally. That’s how my Granny does it and that’s how I do it. The glaze intensifies the red wine flavour and adds extra sweetness.
I really hope you give this mouthwatering Chocolate & Red Wine Cake a try. My whole family loves it, and I am sure it will become your new favourite, too.
My recommendations:
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Disclaimer: A note about affiliate links in this post: some of these links will take you to Amazon where I may receive a small percentage of sales, at no extra cost to you
Granny's Chocolate Red Wine & Pear Cake
My Oma’s never-fail recipe for this moist Chocolate & Red Wine Cake with Pears is a real family classic. The flavours of red wine, chocolate, pears and cinnamon marry beautifully and make this cake the perfect treat for cold fall and winter days.
Ingredients
- 1/2 can tinned pears blotted dry
- 250 g softened butter
- 250 g sugar
- 4 eggs
- 250 g flour sifted
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 120-150 g grated dark chocolate set some aside for deco
- 180 ml red wine
For the drizzle
- 5 tbsp red wine
- 5-6 tbsp tbsp powdered sugar
glaze
- 200 g powdered sugar
- red wine
Instructions
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Take 5 to 6 Pear halves from the can and drain then well. Pat them dry with kitchenpaper and half them lengthwise. Beat butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add eggs, one after another. Mix flour, baking powder, cocoa and spices.
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Now taking turns, add each a tbsp of dry mix followed by a splash of wine to the butter mix until you've incorporated everything.
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Fold in the rest of the grated chocolate and spread the batter into your bundt pan.
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Take the pears and put them into the dough lengthwise. Bake the cake at 175 C for 55 to 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
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Take it out of the oven. Mix the 5 tbsp of wine and 5-6 tbsp of powdered sugar. Soak the still warm cake with this mixture using a brush and let the cake cool completely before unmolding it.
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Make the icing by stirring as much red wine into 200 g of powdered sugar until you have a thick glaze.
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Decorate the cake with glaze and chocolate
