We opened a bottle of Banyuls a few weeks ago and somehow still haven’t got round to finishing it up. Well, it can’t – and shouldn’t – sit in the fridge forever, so after rooting around the kitchen, I decided to whip up a batch of chocolate chips and sweet wine cake. It didn’t came out quite right though, so a second batch was prepared along with some ingredient adjustments. Edible, getting there. Third time was a charm, and hey, no sweet wine left! (And not enough self-raising flour either so I improvised with plain flour and baking powder mix.)

Chocolate chips and sweet wine cake

1/2 cup demarara/brown sugar, 2 eggs, 125g softened and unsalted butter, 1 cup self-raising flour, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup sweet wine, 1 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, and line a loaf tin.
2. Beat sugar and eggs until the mixture thickens.
3. Add butter and flour in 2-3 parts; mix well each time.
4. Add chocolate chips, sweet wine and cocoa powder; mix well.
5. Pour batter into the loaf tin.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes; test with skewer.
7. Leave to cool a little before removing from the loaf pan.
8. Slice the cake and enjoy the treat!

The first batch that was made using caster sugar turned up a bit paler and a tad too sweet for my liking. The second had a bit too much cocoa powder when I tried to “chocolate” up the colour of the batter, and the wine was barely tasted after that. The third cake was good although it still can be improved, except I didn’t have anymore wine.

Besides, I think after a while, F would have got really sick of eating the same cake over and over and over in a couple of days! Life is not easy for the guinea pig ;)