Cocktails are tasty, but desserts taste great, too! Though you may stray away from enjoying your favorite alcoholic beverage and dessert at the same time, there is a way to combine them! Cocktail-inspired desserts are delicious treats that will satisfy your sweet tooth with a kick of liquor essence! Keep reading to learn how to create cocktail-inspired desserts with flavoring.
What Are Cocktail-Inspired Desserts?
Cocktail-inspired desserts are sweet treats inspired by your favorite cocktails. Whether it’s a martini or Aperol Spritz, you can create a tasty dessert that reminds you of a delicious alcoholic beverage. You can make cupcakes, cheesecakes, ice-pops, and many other things with some cocktail inspiration.
Do You Have To Use Alcohol?
One of the best things about creating a cocktail-inspired dessert is that you can put alcohol in the recipe. Of course, if you want to achieve the exact alcohol taste/effect, you need to use liquor for the dessert recipe. On the other hand, if you want only the alcohol flavoring, you can incorporate liquor essence into your dessert batter. You can select alcoholic or non-alcoholic liquor essence to enhance your treat’s flavor!
Best Times for Cocktail-Inspired Desserts?
Though you can create a cocktail-inspired dessert year-round, they’re great for parties and various social gatherings. However, we advise you to create these desserts for adult-only gatherings or label them if minors are around. We understand that these are sweet treats, but you should serve them to only adults of legal drinking age and above.
Where To Start
When creating your first cocktail-inspired dessert, you should start with something that sparks your tastebuds. Think about your favorite drink and imagine a dessert that will complement the flavor. For example, if you’re a fan of margaritas, you can make a tasty margarita key-lime pie. The drink and dessert themselves use limes as a central ingredient, so the flavoring will complement each other.
Best Alcohols To Use for Desserts
- Wine: Champagne and white/red wines taste great in lemon tarts, fruit desserts, and chocolate-based desserts, like molten cake.
- Cocktails: Irish coffee, White Russian, and expresso cocktails taste delicious in cream-based and chocolate desserts.
- Beer: Mexican lagers, Belgian beer, and your favorite IPAs complement fruity and dark chocolate desserts.
Looking for Something With Less Chocolate?
The alcohol selections listed above pair well with many chocolate desserts. However, if you’re looking for something with less chocolate, you can create yummy treats with a fruity-alcohol base. For instance, you can make Mai Tai Bundt cakes with coconut or Jamaican Rum or a “dirty” banana trifle with banana-flavored vodka.
Tips for Making Cocktail-Inspired Dessert With Flavoring
Ultimately, the only way to achieve that spark of alcohol in your cocktail-inspired dessert is to play with flavoring. Check out these tips for making cocktail-inspired desserts with flavoring:
- Don’t overpower the dessert with too much alcohol. Instead, dial back on sweeteners (sugar, honey, etc.) in the recipe to highlight the liquor flavoring. Doing so will emphasize the alcohol taste without changing the alcohol’s measurements in the recipe.
- Use liquor essence to enhance the flavor profile of the dessert. As we mentioned in the first tip, you don’t want to overpower the dessert with too much alcohol. Liquor essence will bring out the flavor without changing the composition of your dessert.
- Always use complementing flavors. When baking anything, it’s essential to use complementing flavors to make the dessert taste good (ex: vanilla and lemon or apple and cinnamon). This is critical in cocktail-inspired desserts because alcohol has a distinctive taste, and you want to create a treat similar to the cocktail.
- Incorporate alcohol into frostings, whipped creams, or glazes. You can experience the real strength of liquor in boozy desserts by not cooking it. You can achieve the distinct liquor taste by folding a small amount of it in frostings, whipped creams, or glazes on top of the dessert.
- Start with small amounts of alcohol and work up to your taste level. When it’s your first time creating a cocktail-inspired dessert, don’t be afraid to use a “light hand” while pouring alcohol into the dessert mixture. After tasting the dessert, you can decide to use more liquor next time or keep the measurements the same.
- Remember that the quality of your alcohol matters. Ultimately, the quality of your liquor will affect the dessert. If you don’t enjoy the taste of the alcohol or wouldn’t drink it in a cocktail, chances are you won’t enjoy it in a dessert! Always use a liquor that you like.
Simple Cocktail-Inspired Dessert: White Sangria Pops
You should start with something simple if you’re new to boozy desserts. Try this fantastic recipe for White Sangria Pops:
Ingredients
- 1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (or your preferred white wine)
- 1-liter of flattened seltzer water (unflatten seltzer water will explode in the freezer!)
- 1/3 cup of cranberry juice
- 1 tablespoon of simple syrup
- 1 cup of blueberries
- 1 cup of raspberries
- 1 cup of blackberries
Instructions
- Stir the Sauvignon Blanc, flattened seltzer water, cranberry juice, and simple syrup in a pitcher. Then, set the pitcher aside.
- Add a mix of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries to your popsicle molds. You can do three of each berry or alter the measurements to your liking.
- Grab your pitcher of sangria and fill each popsicle mold ¾ of the way, leaving a small amount at the top to let the mixture expand.
- Add the popsicle sticks and covers on top of the molds and stick them in the freezer for 24 hours.
- To remove the popsicles from the molds, fill a large bowl with warm water and add the molds to the bowl for 20 seconds. Gently pull on the top of the popsicle to release them from the molds. Repeat this process until all the popsicles come out of the molds.
- Enjoy your tasty creation!
Where To Find Other Great Recipes?
You can research “cocktail-inspired desserts” or “boozy desserts” to find many tasty treats. In addition, you can grab your preferred alcohol and research recipes using it. For example, you can search for “dessert recipes with bourbon” or “chocolate cake recipes with whiskey ganache.” You will come across tons of great recipes!
After reading our guide on how to create cocktail-inspired desserts with flavoring, we hope you have inspiration for your next tasty treat! If you’re interested in creating a dessert with liquor flavorings like bourbon and tequila, you should browse through Get Suckered’s selection of products. We have alcohol flavorings that will bring the “wow” factor to your cocktail-inspired dessert!
