Infuse Some Candy Cane Vodka for the Holidays!

This year, I decided to go a bit more crafty than normal for gifts (I fully blame Pintrest by the way), and decided to try out a bunch of new Holiday infusions. Candy Cane Vodka was by far the easiest to make, so it’s first up on our Holiday gift list- I’m sure these’s more than a couple people on your list that wouldn’t mind having this Holiday treat laying around this year, so lets get shakin’.

When I mentioned that cane cane vodka is quick and easy to make- I wasn’t kidding. I expected that candy canes would infuse in a day or two like most candy, but it really only takes a few hours. Here is a pic of 6 regular sized candy canes shaken a few times at 0, 2, and 4 hours into 2 cups of Clique Vodka. Six candy canes seems to be the perfect amount (notice the missing shot out of the last jar!) of peppermint, and my blind tasting partners were amazed to find out that they were only tasting 2 ingredients- they both thought you could barely taste the vodka!

Since my new batch of holiday gifts only required adding candy canes to a jar of Clique and shaking it, I figured I would go the extra mile and whip up some candy cane syrup and candy cane cream to make a nice trio. For the candy cane syrup, I simply added 2 broken candy canes to a pot with 1 1/2 cups water and brought it to a boil. I stirred until the candy canes were fully dissolved (about 3 minutes), then cut the heat and stirred in 1 cup of sugar until filly dissolved. I suppose you can add as many candy canes as you like, but I’m more of a subtle flavor kinda gal and didn’t want to overdo it.

The candy cane cream was something I never tried before, but in the spirit of the Holidays (and my love for flavored coffee!) I decided to mix 1/2 cup of the candy cane vodka with 1/2 cup of the candy cane syrup. I added about 2 spoonfuls of cream and OH MY. It has that rich creamy texture of a cordial but with a way higher alcohol content (and excellent in coffee I might add).

You can package or present the trio any way you like, but I had all these little bottles laying around, so decided to bottle them and wrap them up with a ribbon. So cute! I suppose you could even add little serving suggestions on the tags for each one, but considering who I plan on giving them to (bartenders), I doubt it’s required, but you can add any of them to coffee, hot cocoa, ice cream, or add them all together for a Pink Russian! Cheers, and Happy Holidays!