A Belfast bartender has created a special drink to mark the anniversary of her workplace this weekend — and the ingredients include cake from a local bakery.
Antrim woman Hannah Morro (25) concocted the cocktail to celebrate Rattlebag’s fifth year in the city centre.
She said: “We decided we’re going to have our first ever birthday party to celebrate five years of Rattlebag being open and I really wanted to make a drink that tastes like birthday cake… why not?
“Whenever you think of a birthday party, you think of cake, right?
“So, we took Boatyard Vodka, which is one of our favourite things to use in our drinks, and we infused it with cake from Dougie’s Goodies bakery, because whenever I was young and at school, if someone had a birthday and they told you they were going to have cake from Dougie’s Goodies, you were like: ‘Please, bring me in a piece after the weekend’.
“So, it’s just great to have that in a drink. Why would you not want to have a little bit of vodka with a bit of cake?”
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Dougie’s Goodies, which started as a small business in Ballymena, now has its treats stocked in more than 25 local outlets.
It opened its Belfast city centre store last October.
Hannah said infusing vodka with the cake was “really simple” for anyone thinking of trying it at home.
She explained: “You just put it all in a blender together and then filter it through something like a coffee filter. You get all the solids out and then you’re just left with liquid cake essentially.
“Boatyard is from Enniskillen… and they’ve been really big supporters of the bar for the past few years, so I think it’s quite nice to bring two really lovely, local things together to make one drink.”
For anyone with a sweet tooth, you can get your hands on Hannah’s novel martini tomorrow at Rattlebag in Ann Street from 3pm.
To celebrate the birthday, the bar is offering all cocktails for £10 on the day.
The drink is poured into a glass decorated with – what else? – hundreds and thousands
Hannah added: “We’re running the birthday cake drink as kind of like a one-time special, so if you want to come in and try it, please do, because I think once it’s gone, that’ll be it done.”
The cocktail also contains Empirical, a spirit from Copenhagen.
She said: “Empirical is made with plum kernels and it tastes like marzipan, so there’s a little bit of that in there, a little bit of lemon and then some vanilla.
“It’s clarified with milk, so you get a perfectly clear cocktail which tastes like cake.
“I’ve been a bartender for seven years and since I started making cocktails I’ve just kind of never stopped.
“I just love coming up with new things and trying to experiment with how you can make things taste like something else — like how you can make a martini taste like a cake.”