What Type of Red Wine Should I Bake Cakes With?

There are as many types of red wine as there are types of cakes, which means pairing the right ones together can be a tricky task. It doesn’t matter what type of red wine you use in terms of technical baking issues, as they all offer the same amount of liquid volume to a cake batter. What’s important is the flavor they add to the batter. Red wines commonly have a strong and slightly dry taste, and generally pair best with chocolate. However, get a little creative and there are other cakes you can pair with red wine based on each type's unique flavor.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet is an intense red wine with a rich, bittersweet flavor. Cakes that echo that bittersweet flavor, particularly dark chocolate, tend to pair best with the wine. Drizzle cabernet into a dark chocolate bundt cake and top with powdered sugar for a simple dessert with a rich background flavor. Mix cabernet into a semi-sweet chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting for an intense chocolate treat. Add a little cabernet to a walnut lemon pound cake to give the mellow cake a tart and fruity twist.

Merlot

Merlot is a strong red wine with a slightly lighter flavor than Cabernet, which makes it slightly more versatile when pairing with cake. Blend merlot into a plum honey cake for a tart sweet with an earthy flavor. Mix merlot with dark chocolate syrup and drizzle it into dark chocolate cake to create a rich sweet with intensely-flavored ribbons. Add a little merlot to devil’s food cake and top with a light layer of merlot buttercream frosting for a decadent dessert with a sharp taste.

Red Zinfandel

Red zinfandel is a fruity red wine with a hint of tart berry flavor. Late-harvest zinfandel has a sweeter taste than regular zinfandel, not to mention cabernet and merlot, which makes it more suitable for mixing with cakes. Mix late-harvest red zinfandel into a red velvet cake and top with raspberry sauce for a complex mix of berry and chocolate flavors. Combine the zinfandel with a little pound cake batter and drizzle the wine mixture back into the regular batter to create a pound cake with flavorful swirls.

Ruby Port

Ruby port is a sweet and fruity fortified wine that’s relatively light as far as red ports go. Fortified wines have spirits, such as brandy, added to the wine to increase the alcohol content and alter the taste. Mix a little port and diced dried cranberries into chocolate cake to give the dessert a balance of sweet and sour tastes. Stir port into black cherry coffee cake to give the very sweet treat a hint of bite. Combine port with dark chocolate lava cake and fill the cake with semi-sweet chocolate sauce for a rich dessert that’s intense, but not overly sweet.

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