I am soooo excited to be sharing this cake with y'all today! I've had the idea for a Sangria Cake floating around my little blogger brain for the longest time, and I am beyond happy with how good {and how pretty} this cake came out. After I realized how great of an idea sangria cake would be, I went to Pinterest to see what other people had done. And found... nothing. Hmph. So then I looked for red wine cake, which yielded a million-and-one results, and all including chocolate! Wine and chocolate, yes. Sangria and chocolate, umm... no thank you. That sounds a little weird. So I had to get to work and whip this little pretty up based on vanilla cake. And I couldn't be happier! This cake is the bomb, y'all.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy this was to whip up! Just cream together a lil butter, sugar, and orange zest, throw in a couple eggs, flour, baking powder, and of course WINE, and you are done! Just pour it into your cake pan, and you are well on your way. I do, however, have a confession. I used food coloring. Gah, the horror! Sorry, y'all. I had a specific vision for how this cake would come out, yet even with nearly a whole cup of wine in the batter, it was beige. Excuse me?! I used some food coloring and I have no regrets, but of course if food coloring isn't your jam, feel free to leave it out. 🙂
The batter will be pretty runny when you're done, but trust me when I say that's how it should be! The finished product is a soft, moist, melt-in-your-mouth cake with an orange flavor and a wine aftertaste. I gave it to my younger brother, who seriously has NO problem being brutally honest when it comes to food {aka he will never, ever eat food he doesn't like to please you. like, ever}, and he said it was really good! So if it passed the test of the pickiest eater in my household, I'm sure you will love it too. I then topped the whole thing with a simple, 5-minute orange zest buttercream. The combination of the rich cake and the sugary, fluffy frosting is a match made in heaven!
Sorry {not sorry} about the picture overload, this cake was just.so.pretty. that I couldn't help myself. Here is the deal... for an average blog post, I take like... between 50 and 70 pictures. For this post, I took 160. Har-dee-har. I'm only a little ridiculous. I'm just obsessed with this cake, okay? I adore sangria in drink form {exhibits one and two}, and of course I love cake, so combining the two was an evil genius move on my part. I hope you love this cake as much as I do! As always, happy baking!
sangria cake
Ingredients
- *for the cake*
- 1 stick + 6 tablespoon unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- zest of ½ orange
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup sangria wine
- red and purple food coloring if desired
- *for the frosting*
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter softened
- zest of ½ orange
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoon heavy cream
- pinch of salt
- 1 orange sliced, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour an 8-inch cake pan, and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and orange zest until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions.
- Add in the flour and baking powder, mixing until just combined.
- Add in the sangria, and mix until incorporated. If desired, add in a couple of drops of red and purple food coloring to reach your ideal color.
- Pour the batter in the prepared pan, and bake for 20 minutes, then cover the pan with foil, and bake for 10 minutes longer.
- When cake is ready, remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.
- When ready to frost, beat together the butter, zest, salt, and powdered sugar until creamy.
- Mixture should be very thick, so add in the heavy cream, a little at a time, until you reach your desired consistency. Spread the frosting on the cake, and top with the orange slices.
- Serve immediately, and store leftovers in the fridge. Enjoy!
Jess @ Flying on Jess Fuel says
Uhmmmmmmmmm!!! What a great idea!!!!! Sounds so yummy... and the cake came out SO pretty! Love that you decorated it with sangria garnishes! 🙂
Kiki says
I made up a sangria cake recipe too because I had a whole jar of lemon/ginger/lime peel from making lemon-lime ginger simple syrup. I put some of that peek in a jar with red wine, cherries (it's spring!) and orange peel. I deliberately did not check the net for recipes until I saw how mine came out - I'm happy with it. It was pink from the wine already so no colouring needed and I put orange slices in the bottom of the pan so I could turn it upside down for a pretty top at the end. Creative cooks, unite!