April 2 2025

Red Wine Chocolate Cake – The Pancake Princess

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Have a leftover bottle of red wine that you’re trying to use up? This red wine chocolate cake uses easy pantry ingredients and comes together in one bowl for a quick and easy recipe that yields a moist and delicious cake!

I’ve dumped more half-open bottles of wine down the sink than I care to admit. In my household, if a bottle of wine is opened for a gathering, the chances of any of us reaching to finish the leftover wine on a weekday is quite low.

For years, I’ve been tempted to do a bake off specifically for red wine chocolate cake. There are a decent number of recipes out there–and as one of my favorite desserts, chocolate cake felt ripe for innovation.

But after conducting the Guinness chocolate cake bake off, I realized my ideal red wine chocolate cake recipe was sitting right in front of me. I LOVED the moist and squishy texture of Inquiring Chef’s Guinness cake along with its deep and almost bitter chocolate flavor. As an added bonus, it’s an incredibly simple cake to make with just 1/4 cup of oil, no dairy and no eggs (perfect in this egg economy)! It’s a perfect everyday chocolate cake, especially if you just top it with fresh fruit instead of the frosting!

While I love this wine cake recipe (inspired by the wine cake my mom always made growing up), I’ve been looking for a simpler recipe that doesn’t require creaming butter, doesn’t require a whole bundt cake worth of commitment, and uses any kind of wine rather than port. With just a few tweaks, an adapted version of the Guinness cake fit all the criteria I was looking for in my ideal red wine chocolate cake:

Can be made in one bowl by hand (no need to pull out the stand mixer to cream butter)
Is eggless (which lends the cake a more delicate, crumbly texture)
Uses a high proportion of red wine–I’m trying to use up the rest of the bottle!

How I adapted the recipe

Jess’ original recipe is amazing and I just made a few tweaks to make this a red wine chocolate cake:

Added 1/2 tsp baking powder: With just baking soda, the middle of the cake kept sinking in the middle. Because this cake has a high proportion of liquid with no eggs for structure, this cake will tend towards having a slightly sunken rather than domed center even with extra leavener. But it will still taste amazing!
Used half brown sugar, half white sugar: The molasses in the brown sugar works well with the red wine flavor. It also adds more acidity to the cake, so the additional baking powder helps balance this out. You can use all white sugar if that’s all you have!
Used red wine instead of Guiness: The key ingredient! A full-bodied red like a cabernet savignon or malbec works well, but you can feel free to use your favorite red wine or whatever wine you have on hand. As long as you like the taste of the wine that’s going in the cake, that’s the most important part.
Added a cream cheese frosting: The red wine kind of reminded me of a red velvet cake and the flavor pairs really well with a fluffy, tangy cream cheese frosting.

The result is a simple but incredibly moist dark chocolate cake recipe with a boozy kick that’s tempered by a swirl of cream cheese frosting!

Ingredients

Brown sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar in this recipe (I used light brown sugar). If you don’t have any on hand, using all white sugar also works!
Natural cocoa powder: Because this cake is mainly leavened with baking soda (a base), stick with natural cocoa (acidic) instead of a Dutch-process cocoa. For natural cocoa, I typically use Hershey’s regular cocoa or Ghiradelli 100% cocoa.
Neutral oil: I used vegetable oil, but canola, grapeseed, safflower, or even olive or coconut oil will all work.
Red wine: This cake will work with any type of red wine. I highly recommend using one that you already like the taste of as the flavor will come through in the end product. I used a full-bodied cabernet sauvignon which worked well.
If you’re wondering if this cake will also work with white wine, the answer is yes! I tried this cake with a leftover bottle of sauvignon blanc and the cake was just as chocolatey and moist. I slightly preferred the richer, earthier flavor with red wine, but the white wine lent some pleasantly light and fruity notes to the cake. Use whichever you have on hand!

How to make red wine chocolate cake

Making this red wine chocolate cake couldn’t be simpler! It’s basically a one-bowl recipe that can be adapted based on whatever kind of wine, oil, sugar and cocoa you have on hand.

Step 1: Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugars, cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder) in a large bowl.

Step 2: Add the wet ingredients (red wine, neutral oil) to the flour mixture and whisk to combine until smooth.

Step 3: Pour batter into a greased 8″ pan lined with parchment paper.

Step 4: Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing and frosting with cream cheese icing.

Storage and make ahead

This cake can easily be made ahead of time. Once the cake is cool, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to a week. When ready to serve, defrost it in the fridge overnight (or at room temperature for a couple hours) before frosting and serving.

To store any leftover cake, place slices in an airtight container in the fridge. Before serving, I recommend setting the container out at room temperature for 30 minutes to let the cake soften (unless you prefer cold cake!).