Australia's Biggest Morning Tea - Charity Cake Competition (Part I)

Tomorrow is the official day for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea , one of the Cancer Council Australia’s most popular and largest fundraising events. Every year, one of the departments at work organises a Charity Cake Competition where home baked cakes are judged according to various categories and then auctioned off. All the proceeds go to the Cancer Council.

... As if I needed an excuse to bake ...

I enjoy baking for charity. My first charity bake was when I was 14 years old and I baked 37 heart-shaped chocolate mud cakes in three straight days. I was chocolate phobic for almost a week after that. There is such a thing as too much chocolate, I discovered.

I have been thinking for a week about what I should bake. I had to take into account my lack of time this week, so the cake cannot be too time consuming or complicated. And it had to be unique. So, I decided to make a German cake from the Alsace region - Rotweinkuchen (Red Wine Cake) I got the recipe from my German friend, Eva of Sweet sins. She has many great recipes.

This was also an opportunity to show off my new toy – a cast aluminum traditional cake mould, one of the cool gadgets that Em gave me for my birthday two weeks ago. Wouldn't you agree that this mould is destined for great cakes? When I first laid my eyes on it, my mind started to go wild thinking of all the beautiful cakes I could make.

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However, I have to say that I am a little disappointed with the final product ….

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You know how sometimes you have a certain vision or fantasy of how your cake will turn out but in the end, the reality didn’t quite match up? Well, this is one such instance. It was not the mould’s fault though. It was the glaze’s fault…. and the baker. Oh well, at least this will be for a good cause. And I know that it will taste good because I've had rave reviews the last time I made it. Photos of the cake competition that was held today, the results and the cake auction will be in my next post, so stay tuned!

~ Rotweinkuchen ~

German Red Wine Chocolate Cake

200g butter
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
200g flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder, heaped
125ml red wine
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp cocoa, heaped
100g dark chocolate, finely chopped
icing sugar for dusting or chocolate glaze

1
Cream butter with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time,
and mix well.

2
Stir in cinnamon, vanilla essence, wine and chocolate till just combine (do not over mix). The mixture will look mushy.

3
Fold in the flour, cocoa and baking powder.

4
Pour into prepared baking tin and bake in a pre-heated oven (150 degrees Celsius, fan-forced) for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

5
Let cool on a rack and dust with icing sugar or chocolate glaze. Serve with fresh cream or ice-cream if desired.