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:

Carlie Skye

So I have been thinking about inventing a mixed drink for a while now and finally found the creative spark and inspiration that I needed. A couple of weeks ago Whitney had been complaining about the baby kicking her, but she was also really excited for the baby to come and was getting the room ready. I decided to name this drink after her, Carlie Skye. It has a good kick with a little bit of sweetness, just like the real thing. The recipe follows:

Carlie Skye
4 oz Cranberry Juice
1 oz lime juice
1 oz non-alcoholic Triple Sec

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a CHILLED martini glass. I put the martini glasses in the freezer at least 5 minutes before I make this. The more chilled the glass the better the outcome.

Switching gears...Kind of

So it has been over 8 months since my last post. Things have been crazy in between. We are expecting a baby any day now and we have been getting ready for that. I have also been taking cake decorating classes through Wilton at Michael's. I am can't remember exactly how I decided to get into cake decorating, but I have really enjoyed the classes. I now make all the birthday party cakes for my family and I have even been hired by Weber State University to make a cake for a faculty luncheon. I will also include occasional cakes that I have made and cake baking/decorating tips as well as mocktails in my blog posts. So stay tuned haha.

Bora Bora

For Valentine's Day I decided that instead of going out to an expensive restaurant that I would make Whitney dinner. So I decided to make Chinese which I am pretty sure is one of her favorite foods. So I decided to make Kung Pao chicken. Well I wanted a drink that would go well with it and decided on the Bora Bora. I had never made this before and didn't know how it tasted, but it turned out to be one of our favorites. It is contains pineapple juice, lemon juice, grenadine, and passion fruit juice. You can use a cherry and/or a pineapple slice as a garnish as well. Finding straight up passion fruit juice proved a bit difficult, but we finally found one that Welch's makes. The recipe is below. It tasted great with the spicy food and is great all by itself.

Bora Bora

5 oz Pineapple juice
3 oz Passion Fruit juice
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz grenadine

Put juices in shaker with ice and then strain into a high ball glass.

New Found Favorites

This past week I have found a new favorite drink mix and a new ingredient. We were at Macey's and decided to buy a Cosmopolitan mixer and it was pretty good. We had tried to make Cosmos before, but these were really good. I also bought some Non-Alcoholic Triple Sec. Triple sec is a orange flavoured liquer that is triple distilled from dried orange skins. It is mostly used as a sweetening agent in its non-alcoholic form. We have used it with the Cosmo mix and it is great. I have used 2 or 3 ounces of the mixer, 1 oz of water and an ounce of the triple sec. Everyone that has tried it so far has really liked it.