Chocolate Berry Wine Gateau … a delicious, indulgent GF cake this Christmas

“Cake is happiness! If you know the way of the cake, you know the way of happiness! If you have a cake in front of you, you should not look any further for joy!”
C. JoyBell C

Chocolate Berry Wine Fallen Gateau … because when a smooth, indulgent dessert wine arrives, you have to do something special with it. These were thoughts that ran through my head when the well packaged bottles of Bellissima and Rosa Rossa arrived from Big Banyan.

With Christmas around the corner, my flavours and colours were pretty much sorted out. I knew what I wanted to bake. It was going to be a flourless fallen gateau, it was definitely going to have dessert wine, and the top would have strawberries. Well it all kind of fell into place. I had bought a ton of strawberries a few days ago and planned to make a preserve. Then along came dessert wine. Why not a strawberry wine jam?

With winter here, spices are part and parcel of almost everything I do, so I settled for a spicy Strawberry Wine Jam. The cake came out deliciously wicked. It’s great on toast and in lindzer cookies, fabulous to make dark chocolate truffles with, and makes for a much appreciated holiday gift as well. Strawberry jam is the easiest to make. You basically just cook it down to a nice chunky consistency, discard the whole spices, and bottle the jam. Dollop it over waffles, ice cream, onto parfaits, over breakfast oats … you will love it!

Jam done. That was so easy. When the jar of wine jam says time for cake, it’s time to bake!! This is one of the simplest gateaux you can bake. Don’t get misled by the long list of ingredients. It comes together really fast and is a fuss free, chocolaty, fudgy gluten free cake. The ingredients should all be good quality because that’s what makes the cake special. Dessert wine and spiced strawberry wine jam added oodles of oomph to it. Subtle undertones of sweet strawberry and a hint of wine make this special. It’s called a fallen gateau because it rises quite normally while baking, then collapses most dramatically.

I love the crater the so called collapse causes because that becomes ‘ground‘ for filling. An ugly duckling, rustic cake, moorish to boot, gets a snazzy dressing up. Christmas is here so it’s red, white and green. Chocolate pairs really beautifully with wine and fruit, so this was going to be a winning combination. The almond cream added further indulgence. Then came the ruby red, bursting with flavour, spicy strawberry wine jam topping that was literally the icing on the cake.

Did I forget to mention the chewy meringue top studded with pistachios? Yes, you can taste that as well as you savour every rich bite of this chocolaty wine goodness. It might seem tempting to skip the step, but I urge you not to. It’s small things like this that add to the final delight. We loved every little detail of this cake so much, I am going to bake it again soon. I have to give the wine full marks. I’d heard the buzz about the wine here and there, and it more than lived up to our expectations. I might not be a connoisseur, but yes, can tell a good wine.

The dessert wine glowed a beautiful gold, while the Rosé  blushed a beautiful cherry pink. I am quite partial to sweet dessert wines. The Bellissima was my first love with sensual smooth hints of apricot, pears, walnuts and raisins; so exotic in my opinion. Like liquid gold. Rosé got the better halves vote. With the acidity just right, whiffs of freshness and smooth flavour, this wine was good! I couldn’t stop clicking the wine. It added great festive cheer to my food and frame. As I have learnt, if the ingredients are good, you love the process, and then turn out amazing goodness. This is just what happened.

Do serve some wine with the Chocolate Berry Wine Fallen Gateau. It completes the experience!

Recipe: Chocolate Berry Wine Fallen Gateau

 

A deeply indulgent, satisfying flourless {read gluten free} dark chocolate cake that celebrates the best of the holiday season. Sweetened with dessert wine and strawberry wine jam, festival baking doesn’t get better than this Chocolate Berry Wine Fallen Gateau with a strawberry wine jam topping. A cake for Christmas! Serves 8-10

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes {plus cooling time}
Ingredients:

• Strawberry Wine Jam
• 400g strawberries, diced
• 100ml Big Banyan Dessert Wine
• 75-100g brown sugar
  Juice of 1 lime
• 2 star anise
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 4-5 cloves
• Chocolate Berry Wine Fallen Gateau
• 250g dark couverture chocolate
• 100ml Dessert wine
• 35g strawberry wine jam
• 3egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• Pinch cream of tartar
• 175g brown sugar {100+75g divided}
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g almond meal
• 25g pistachios, blanched, peeled
• Strawberry Wine Jam Topping
• 100g cream, chilled
• 25g icing sugar
• 3-4 drops almond extract
• 100gm strawberries, quartered
• 25g brown sugar
• 2 tsp strawberry wine jam

Method:

1. Strawberry Wine Jam
2. Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom sauce pan, and simmer gently for about 30 minutes until the strawberries are soft and the consistency is a little thick and jam like. {It will thicken a little more as it cools}
3. Cool, discard the whole spices and transfer to a jar.
4. Chocolate Berry Wine Fallen Gateau
5. Preheat oven to 180C. Line the base and sides of a tall 7″ round spring form baking tin with parchment paper.
6. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and microwave for 1 minute on high, until the chocolate has almost melted {else melt over a double boiler} Stir until smooth, and then stir in the dessert wine and strawberry jam.
7. Beat egg whites with 75g brown sugar and cream of tartar to stiff peaks.
8. Place egg yolks with remaining 100g brown sugar and vanilla extract and whisk to mix. Whisk n the melted chocolate-berry mix. Fold in the almond meal.
9. Reserve 1/2 cup of the beaten egg whites for topping if desired.
10. Add 2-3 tbsp of the beaten egg whites to the chocolate mixture and fold in gently. Add the remaining beaten egg whites in two lots, gently folding into the batter so that the air is not released.
11. With an offset spatula, spread the reserved beaten egg white mixture over the top of the cake. Sprinkle over the pistachios.
12. Bake at 180C for approximately an hour, until done. The cake will fall as it cools.
13. Cool in tin until cooled completely, then gently peel off parchment and transfer to serving platter. {I cooled it in the fridge overnight as I find the flavours mature really well. Take out of fridge half an hour before serving}
14. Top with whipped almond cream, and strawberry wine jam topping {Recipe follows}
15. Almond whipped cream
16. Whip the cream with icing sugar and almond extract until medium peaks form. Fill the fallen gateau cavity with it.
17. Strawberry Wine Jam Topping
18. Place quartered strawberries in a heavy bottom pan with brown sugar. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until the strawberries just begin to soften. Add the wine jam and stir well until the topping is nice and glossy, a minute. Cool and chill. {Can be made a day ahead}
19. Note: Is a great on parfaits, ice cream, fresh waffles etc too

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India