Mulled wine cake with red wine icing

Pour cheap but decent red wine into a saucepan; add a couple tablespoons of brandy and whole cloves, whole allspice and star anise.

Heat on medium until it just barely starts to simmer, then drop to low and cook about 15 minutes to infuse the spices.

Use the wine hot in the batter; cool what is left for the icing.

In a bowl combine all-purpose flour, a little cocoa, brown sugar, white sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and a few shakes of cayenne; whisk about 30 seconds to distribute.

Add freshly grated orange zest, vegetable oil (or melted butter) and a couple of large beaten eggs; stir with a fork, slowly at first, about a minute or until the flour disappears.

Mix in about two thirds of a cup of the still hot mulled wine (reheat it if made ahead); switch to a whisk and mix until shiny and relatively smooth.

Pour into a generously oiled cake pan with a round of parchment in the bottom; tap and shake to settle it and bring bubbles up.

Bake in the center of a 350 degree oven about 25 to 30 minutes, until a skewer or toothpick comes out virtually clean; if raw batter clings, give it a few more minutes.

Cool on a rack 20 minutes before removing, or it can break. Invert onto a plate, peel off the parchment, then invert back onto the rack top side up and cool to room temperature.

Icing: whisk a couple cups of powdered sugar with about three tablespoons of the cooled mulled wine until it flows; add wine if too thick, sugar if too runny.

Set something under the rack to catch drips and drizzle the icing off the whisk, shaking it back and forth, leaving some cake showing. Icing a still-warm cake makes it pool in the centre and soak in.

Move to a serving platter and let the icing dry and firm up for the neatest slices.

Dust over a little cocoa for contrast and top with an edible flower or a little bunch of grapes.

Variation: boil extra mulled wine with an equal amount of sugar, cool, and use it to soak the cake before icing or spoon it over a slice.