Does your letterbox get flooded with loads of retail brochures, and real estate flyers? Ours too – and after the long weekend of Queens Birthday there were even more than normal!  As an aside I did wonder how the retailers would feel if they knew that the flyers arrived ‘after’ the weekend when the sales were advertised for as I browsed through them 🙂

In amongst the paper recycling were the normal Real Estate advertising  ‘ I’ve sold more houses in your street’ flyers which I generally give no more than a cursory glance too, however I did spy something a little different from the norm – a recipe.

Clever agent I thought – as I unfolded the whole flyer to see what else I might find amongst the housing news.  “Housing market flat – Auckland values down – restricted lending by banks” – nothing new in there. So back to the recipe I went.

Pinot Noir Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 90 grams softened butter
• 170 grams brown sugar
• 60 grams caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup Pinot Noir
• 3/4 cup cherries
• 150 grams plain flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°c – and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.

Cream the butter and two sugars together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then add the vanilla – ( I like to use vanilla paste however essence is just fine).

Mix in the red wine gently, and then sift into the mixer all of the dry ingredients. Add the chopped chocolate in next. Do not over mix, as you fold in the cherries.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until your cake skewer is clean from mix when you test the cake.

Now the Real Estate agent calls this a ‘lavish cake, velvety and moist’ and she was not wrong. The Pinot Noir compliments the cherries with complex fruit undertones – goodness now I sound like a wine connoisseur not a humble home baker 🙂

Serve with an unsweetened thick yoghurt to cut through the sweetness; trust me you’ll need it if you ice the cake like I did. 

A nice hot black coffee or if you feel like continuing the indulgence, a glass of that Pinot Noir will be a lovely accompaniment in front of a roaring fire, and a candle-lit room….oops sorry day dreaming just a little!

Oh, and the moral of the story? read those pesky flyers from cover to cover as you never know what useful information or recipe may be lurking amongst the propaganda 🙂

Happy baking xx