The “One Glass Too Many” Cake

I think many of us can relate to having one too many glasses of wine. For me, it’s usually a pounding heading headache that let’s me know I’ve overindulged. Ironically, this is the inspiration behind this One Glass Too Many red wine cake!

This cake is a homage to red wine, and to those of us who may love wine a bit too much 😛

I made it for my friend Stephanie, who loves red wine, and who actually came up with the idea for this cake!! I believe it went something like, “can you make a cake that looks like it has a glass of wine spilling all over it?”

This cake is made with my go to vanilla layer cake recipe, and the “red wine” is made using my colorful white chocolate drip recipe.

My main tip for this cake is to use a large, light- weight wine glass, to ensure that the frosting can hold it in place.

I found these epic wine glasses at CB2 for $5, but most home goods stores sell relatively inexpensive individual wine glasses too.

The full tutorial and recipe for this cake can be seen below:

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Begin by preparing the white chocolate ganache, as it will need to cool down before it can be drizzled on the cake.

Heat heavy cream in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave for 45 seconds-1 minute, until bubbling.

Gently pour white chocolate chips into the heavy cream, making sure they are fully covered with cream.

Allow mixture to sit for 2 minutes. Stir slowly until mixture is fully incorporated, then add in a few drops of gel food coloring.

Stir until fully combined. Then add A SINGLE tiny drop of black food coloring, to make a deep red. Be VERY CAREFUL with this step, as one extra drop of black will ruin the color or the ganache!

Remember that you can always add more, but you can’t go back once you’ve added coloring!!

Allow the ganache to cool until desired viscosity is reached. If there are still some bits of chocolate that aren’t melted, you can pour the ganache through a sieve to remove them from the mixture.

If it seems to thin or thick, you can add a touch more chocolate chips or heavy cream! The type of cream and white chocolate that you use can affect the consistency, so feel free to adjust as needed.

I like to put my ganache into plastic squirt bottles when decorating cakes! But you can also use a spoon to drizzle it over cakes. Leave ganache out to cool to room temperature.

Next, begin to make the cake batter. Grease and line four 7” round pans.

Mix together all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt) in a stand mixer with a paddle until fully combined.

Mix chunks of butter slowly into the dry mix on a low speed. Continue to mix until no chunks of butter remain, and the mixture becomes crumbly.

In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients (vanilla extract, egg whites, buttermilk, and vegetable oil), and whisk to combine.

On low speed, add 1/3 of the liquid ingredients to the dry/butter mixture. Mix until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Mix in the remaining wet ingredients in two installments, on a medium-high speed until fully incorporated.

Divide the batter in half, and color half of it red, with gel food coloring. Then alternate scoops of white and red cake batter, until all four pans are filled.

Take a butter knife, and run it through the pans to swirl together the colors. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then run an offset spatula around perimeter of the pan to separate the cake from the pan. Place cake layers on a rack to finish cooling.

While the cakes bake and cool, prepare the vanilla buttercream frosting (click here for tutorial).

Whip the butter until it is light and creamy, then slowly add the powdered sugar.

Alternate installments of powdered sugar with heavy cream, and continue mixing until the frosting has reached desired consistency.

Add salt and vanilla, and continue mixing until fully incorporated.

Assembly the cake layers, apply and even layer of buttercream between each layer.

Apply a crumb coat, and place the cake in fridge for 20 minutes to allow the frosting to cool and firm.

Then apply another layer for frosting, and smooth with a cake bench.

Create a mountain of frosting on the cake with additional frosting, and firmly press glass into the base of the frosting mound.

Smooth frosting into the glass, to make it look like the glass is full of red wine that is spilling out.

Pour ganache over the cake, and using an offset spatula, spread some on top of the frosting in the glass.

Allow some of the ganache to drizzle over the sides of the cake.

And TAH DAH!

Marbled Vanilla Cake Ingredients:

• 3 1/4 cup flour
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
• 3 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup egg whites (about 7 large egg whites)
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil
• red gel food coloring (optional)