I wanted to do a stir up Sunday recipe but decided it was kind of pointless. Everyone seems to use a family recipe or good old Delia’s. So instead we have something a little different… and also a response to a few folk on my Facebook page asking for festive cocktails. At this point I hand over to my dear friend Caitlin, the manger of my favourite cocktail bar/restaurant/place to feed your sore head a monster breakfast/place to meet your husband/wedding party venue/place to bribe my toddler with strawberry juice.
“Too many cocktails are pink, sickly sweet or overly creamy in my opinion, as much as I love kitsch, I want Don Draper style with an element of homegrown, not Priscilla Queen of the Desert! Many of the spirits are made on the family farm – sloe gin, raspberry vodka & Christmas pud vodka, from home grown ingredients. I became fascinated with cocktails here after working my way through the wine list too many times! Once pregnant I became a cocktail pusher, designing the very bloke friendly ‘Cider with Rosie’ made with locally pressed 7% scrambler cider (made in our friend Robs back garden) Makers Mark bourbon, ginger ale & rosemary.”
Ingredients:
– 100g cranberries
– 150g sultanas
– 50g mixed peel
– 100g golden caster sugar
– 2 cinnamon sticks
– 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
– 15g ground mixed spice
– 4 cloves
– Zest of 1 orange
– Zest of 1 lemon
– 1 litre bottle of vodka/gin
Put everything into a bowl/container/jug, making sure that whatever you use holds all the alcohol. Cover and leave for about a week in the fridge. Then strain through muslin and bottle ready for making into a Stir Up Fizz cocktail (one shot of this gin/vodka, topped up with champagne and served with a ginger biscuit) as soon as the festive mood takes you. Don’t throw the dried fruit away! You can serve it over ice-cream for a very grown up and super charged dessert.
A few other Christmas cocktail ideas from the lovely Caitlin… (a shot is 25mls by the way)
Blood orange margarita: Shake 1.5 shot tequila, 0.5 shot Gran Marnier, squeeze fresh lime, 1 shot syrup and 2 shots blood orange juice over ice. Strain into a tumbler glass with a salt rim and finish with a lime or orange wedge.
Snowball-Highball: Stir 2 shots Advocaat and a large squeeze of fresh lime over ice in a highball glass, top up with lemonade and pop a glace cherry on the top!
Sloe Gin Fizz: Muddle 2 raspberries or blackberries in the bottom of a whiskey style glass, fill half way with crushed ice, then add 2 shots sloe gin, 1 shot lemon juice and 1 shot syrup, and top up with soda.
Cider with Rosie: Pour 1 shot Makers Mark into a whiskey glass, add a squeeze of lemon juice, half fill with ice then top up with half Scrambler boxed cider and half
Schweppes dry ginger. Serve with a sprig of fresh rosemary.
Fabulous fizz (alcohol free for the cocktail pushers amongst us): Mix a third each of Shloer, ginger ale & pineapple juice. Serve over ice and feel very smug that your head doesn’t hurt the next day.
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Holly Bell 
Hello Holly, just a quick question on this one: how long does it keep? Indefinitely in a sterilised bottle? Or is it a drink soon type thing?
It keeps for months and months! x
Thanks! X
Thanks for this Holly, I’ve got it mixed up and infusing in the fridge now and it already smells awesome (as do my hands!) I’ve always wanted to try making a flavoured spirit but most of them seems to take about a year to make, which is fine once you’ve set up your tradition of make-this-year’s-drink-last-year’s but I’m a want-it-NOW kind of girl! Looking forward to tasting it :)
This has turned out to be a real life-saver! Suddenly realised an hour ago (I’ve been pretty much out of it with flu all week) that today is the last dancing class before Christmas, and I didn’t have time left to make any gifts. Thankfully I had the (almost) full bottle of this that I’d made the other week and also some little sealable bottles from Lakeland (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15585/6-Mini-Presentation-Bottles) which I bought on a whim. Printed tags on the computer and added some Christmassy ribbon and I have my gifts just in time for pick-up at 3pm! Now I’m just hoping I’ve remembered correctly how many teachers they have between them…
LOVVIT! I personally really don’t eat Christmas Pudding. I much prefer it stirred into vanilla ice cream. It’s far less stodgy. BUT Having said that we took the girls to make pudding with grandma this year to start a stir up sunday tradition. I am liking the sound of these cocktails. I think they will become part of the tradition too. Cheers my lovely xx
I love it in ice-cream too. There are very few things I don’t like to eat BUT I think I’d always take a Stir Up Cocktail over a pudding. xxx
That sounds like my kind of cocktail!
Mine too! x