Make this Easy Cake with Grenache Blanc Wine from Scratch
Last year, I celebrated International Grenache Day (September 15) by sharing a delicious cake created by Sue Tipton, owner and vintner of Acquiesce Winery, for which she doctors a box cake mix to make her Acquiesce Grenache Blanc Cake.
Well, you know me — I love cooking too much to use mixes. With a few extra minutes, I can make a cake from scratch with the best ingredients and avoid preservatives and ingredients with names I can’t pronounce. I know I have been called a snob, and many believe to their core that their box mix is better than my scratch. Continue reading here for the original Cocoa & Lavender article.
Grenache Blanc Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 large pinch Salt
- 1 3/4 cup Acquiesce Grenache Blanc one cup is for the glaze
- 3/4 cup Sweet Olive Oil *see notes
- 1/2 cup cream
- Finely Grated Zest of 1 Lemon
- 3 large eggs
- 1 Stick of Butter
- 1 lb Confectioners Sugar sifted
Instructions
Instructions
- Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms with a round of parchment. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Whisk the dry cake ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Whisk together 3/4 cup Grenache Blanc, the olive oil, cream, eggs, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. When well blended, add to the dry ingredients and, using the paddle attachment, mix until the batter just comes together and all dry ingredients are moistened. Then, beat for an additional 30 seconds at medium-high speed.
- Evenly divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 22-25 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes.
- While layers are cooling, make the glaze by mixing the remaining 1 cup Grenache Blanc with the butter and confectioners sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened slightly — about 2 minutes. You will have about 2 1/2 cups of glaze.
- Using a skewer, poke holes all over the cakes and then slowly drizzle the glaze over the tops of the warm cakes, dividing it evenly between the two pans. Don’t try to drizzle it all at once; take your time. The cakes will eventually soak up all the delicious glaze.
- Turn the cakes out of the pans onto serving platters or slice them directly from the pans. You can also freeze one of the cakes for future use!
Notes
More Cake Recipes
Producing only Rhône-style white and rosé wines, Acquiesce Winery is a maverick in Lodi, California. The appellation is known for its concentration of Zinfandel red wines. The San Francisco Chronicle included the Acquiesce Winery tasting room among its list of 52 vineyards to visit in 2020.
The vineyard was a retirement dream, something to do after Susan and Rodney Tipton left their corporate careers. At the time, acquiesce was only a verb: to surrender, to become quiet. The word became a vision of a time when they were no longer moving between different states (five of them), living in Sweden, and raising three boys. The idea became a reality in 2003 with the purchase of an 18-acre property in Lodi, California. Continue reading about Acquiesce Winery and the Lodi wine region in California.
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