Spread some Christmas cheer with this scrumptious Mulled Wine Chocolate cake

What's better than a warm cup of mulled wine on a winter evening? A slice of gooey, decedent mulled wine chocolate cake.

The perfect combination of chocolate, wine and cream cheese, this cake is the only extra sweetness your Christmas celebrations need.

Put on your baking gloves, and get ready for a new Christmas favourite.

Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
Sugar: 2 ½ cups
Eggs: 4
Butter (melted): 150 gm
Mulled wine: 1 cup
Flour: 2 ½ cups
Baking powder: 2 tsps
Cocoa powder: 2 tbsps

For Cream Cheese Filling:
Cream cheese: 250 gm
Sweet berry compote: ½ cup
Butter: 2 tbsps
Powdered sugar: ½ cup
Cinnamon: ½ tsp
Milk: 1 tbsp

Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C)
- Grease two rectangle cake pans
- In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs with an electric mixer for about 1 minute, until slightly thickened
- Add flour, cocoa, melted butter, mulled wine and baking powder and beat for another minute, just until the batter is smooth and creamy. Don't overbeat
- Pour batter into greased baking pans
- Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center of the layer comes out clean
- Loosen the sides of the cake from the pans using a thin knife, then turn them over on a rack and take out cakes
- Let it cool completely and cut off the tops before covering with frosting

Make the filling
- Take butter and milk in a microwave-proof bowl
- Heat in microwave for 30 seconds, add the berry compote
- Pour the mixture in a medium bowl, add sifted powdered sugar, cinnamon and cream cheese and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed until it is creamy
- Spread the filling on one cake layer and cover with the other
- Spread chocolate frosting on top of the cake or decorate with sifted cocoa powder

(Courtesy: Chef Abdul Wahid, Pastry Chef, The Westin Gurgaon,New Delhi)