Eats

Drink of the Month: Café Vermilionville's king cake martini

by Elizabeth Rose

Celebrate Mardi Gras the sophisticated way: cocktail in hand.

Celebrate Mardi Gras the sophisticated way: cocktail in hand. By Elizabeth Rose

Friday, Feb. 1, 2013

Café Vermilionville's sous chef Patout Waters has created a cocktail decadent enough for the season of gluttony.
The king cake martini, a combination of all that is wonderful, is a nod to the Mardi Gras staple but much better suited for the revelry surrounding the season than the king cake you bring to share with the office.

The drink, which is labor-intensive but oh so worth it, is rimmed with green, purple and gold sugar and the glass is lined with housemade amaretto icing. It's sweet, but not overly so, but creamy enough to mimic the baked version's filling and the orange juice (freshly squeezed juices are a recent addition to the Café V bar) cuts the flavor with a slight tartness.

The Café V staff doesn't recommend mixing one up for parties (because it takes about 10 minutes per drink) but it's well suited for a pre-ball pregame or post-ball nightcap.

King Cake Martini
Ingredients:

1.5 oz champagne
1 oz spiced rum
1.5 oz amaretto
1.5 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
0.5 oz cream
Colored sugar for rim
Amaretto icing for the glass

Amaretto icing
1/4 C powdered sugar
4 T amaretto

Directions:
1. Rim glass with colored sugar.
2. Drizzle amaretto icing on the inside of the glass.
3. Shake and strain spiced rum, amaretto, orange juice and cream into a martini glass.
4. Float champagne on top.

If you'd rather have someone else do the work, visit Café Vermilionville at 1304 W. Pinhook Road.