Christmas-y Candy Cane-tinis

Ho! Ho! Ho! Do I have a Christmas cocktail to make your spirits bright!  Candy Cane-tini anyone?

How do you concoct this cocktail? First you start with a homemade candy cane vodka.  And that is as simple as could be. Take a bottle of vodka - not the most expensive, but not the cheapest on the shelf either. Add 20 mini candy canes, shake and wait patiently for the candy to dissolve.  

Oh, get that mournful look off your face...it's usually done in a couple of hours. Not quite instant gratification, but the next best thing to it. And does this pretty bottle make a lovely gift. Actually the recipe makes 2 bottles...a gift for someone special and one to keep!

How about the martini...what else do you need to serve this up to all your holiday guests? I'll give you the full details below along with the recipe for the cocktail, but for starters you'll need White Creme de Cacoa, simple syrup or agave syrup, heavy cream and just a little club soda or seltzer to make some serious Yuletide yummy-ness. What are we waiting for? Let's make some cocktails!

Candy Cane Vodka

• 1 - 1.75 liter bottle of vodka (that's the big one with the handle or equivalent)
•  40 mini candy canes
• 2 wine bottles (I get mine at the wine making store along with corks and plastic sleeves that shrink and make them look all pretty)

Snap the candy canes so they fit through the opening of the bottles and put 20 in each bottle.  

Using a funnel, pour vodka into the bottle up to where the neck narrows at the shoulders of the bottle. Cork the bottle, turn upside down and move it around a little to dislodge the candy from the bottom and set on a kitchen counter or someplace else out of the way. That's it essentially. When you pass the bottles occasionally, check to see if the candy is dissolved and turn them upside down to agitate and help dissolve the candy.  

If you want to get all fancy (I did), you can put plastic sleeves on the neck and shrink them down to seal so they look all pretty.  It's easy.  Ask at the wine supply store. 

You don't have to stop the fancy-ness there, you can get bottle labels to print out on the computer and really do them up! Just ask the wine peeps at the store - they'll be happy to sell you anything and everything you can imagine to make the prettiest gifts this side of the North Pole.  

Christmas-y Candy Cane-tinis

• 2 1/2 oz. Candy Cane Vodka (yep! The stuff YOU made!)
• 2 1/2 oz. White Creme de Cacao
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup or agave syrup
• 1 oz. heavy cream
• splash of club soda or seltzer
• mini candy cane for garnish

Add vodka, Creme de Cacao and simple syrup to a cocktail shaker.  Add ice 3/4 of the way up the tin. Cap tightly and shake until the tin frosts over and is very cold.  

Strain into a martini glass (if you wish, you can crush candy canes and rim the glass with them ahead of time - fancy!), add a splash or so of soda or seltzer and float the cream over the surface of the liquid in the glass. Garnish with a mini candy cane.  

Cheers everyone!