Caipirinha! Brazil's National Cocktail

My brother is having a Brazilian Barbecue this weekend and I wanted to come up with a drink to have at it. I did some research and found out that the Caipirinha is considered Brazil's national cocktail. Traditionally the Caipirinha is made with limes and Cachaça, which is made from fermented sugar cane. It is a pretty simple recipe and relies a lot on the alcohol which makes it difficult to make it into a mocktail. My first step was to search around and see if any Non-alcoholic recipes existed. I found a few, but wanted to test them out and then put my own mark on it as well. I recently purchased some sugar cane syrup which I thought would add an authentic taste since the alcohol is derived from fermented sugar cane. I used myself, my wife Whitney, and my sister Bieanna as the guinea pigs. We tried it with and without the sugar cane syrup. While it tasted fine either way, we preferred the addition of the sugar cane syrup to give it a little something extra. It turned out a success and here is the finished recipe:

Non-alcoholic Caipirinha

Ingredients
1/2 lime quartered
sugar
ginger beer
sugar cane syrup
crushed ice

Take the quartered lime and put it in the bottom of a lowball glass. Add sugar to taste (I used about a 1/2 Tbsp or so) to the lime. Muddle the lime to release the juices, but do not do it too vigorously or you will release the pulp and it will not be very nice to drink. Add crushed ice and then fill with ginger beer(I preferr Regatta Ginger Beer). Add just a dash of sugar cane syrup and stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Expanding The Bar

I have been searching high and low for new additions to my bar to make it more diverse and I have finally found something worth noting. Monin is a company that sells flavorings for bars and coffee houses. They have every kind of flavor imaginable, from simple fruit flavorings like Banana and Strawberry to exotic flavors like Caribbean Rum and Chipotle Pineapple. This is one of the best discoveries I have made for the bar for a long time. I recently purchased some different flavors to try out and they should be arriving shortly. I then want to have a mocktail party to test out the different recipes. These flavors have already sparked a lot of creativity for making drinks. The drink I really want to perfect is Bananas Foster. Bananas Foster is a dessert that was created in New Orleans by frying bananas in a caramel sauce and then adding Rum to the pan and lighting it on fire. Once the flame dies out (when the alcohol has been burned off) you serve it over vanilla ice cream. Whitney and I had this dessert for Valentine's Day and loved it. The ingredients I want to bring together for the drink version would be banana, rum, caramel, and vanilla. The base might be best as a milky base. Either half and half for an actual cocktail or vanilla ice cream for a frozen drink. Whitney and I will have to experiment and find out which one works best. I also picked up some Ginger Beer, Sugar Cane Syrup, and Hibiscus flowers which will also bring more diverse drinks to our repertoire.

Carlie is here!

The last few months have been crazy busy. Carlie Skye Carter was born December 8, 2009 and life has been a whirlwind ever since. Whitney's family came to visit for a couple of weeks after the birth and that was good to have them up. I was busy making plenty of Carlie Skye's for everyone haha. I also made a cake for her baby blessing. It was my first time doing a tiered cake on pillars. I used white fondant on a white cake. The bottom tier was 12 inches and the top tier was 6 inches. I also made some fondant flowers (which Whitney mostly made) and placed them on the border of the top tier and above a fondant ruffle border on the bottom tier. Whitney then had a great idea for the remaining fondant flowers. We arranged them in a 'C' on top of the cake. I then put a bow around the top tier. We saved the top tier in the freezer for Carlie to enjoy when she is a year old haha. Here is a pic of the cake: