PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE MARTINI

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE MARTINI

1 oz vanilla vodka

2 oz pineapple juice

1 dash grenadine syrup

I absolutely love PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE MARTINIS — always have. I now know that there is a martini for about every kind of cake at the bakery, but the PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE MARTINI will always be my favorite. It was one of my first martinis and I discovered it during a girls getaway to Jacksonville, Florida. My group of friends always started our evenings out at a martini bar with half-price martini happy hours, and they were happy hours.

A martini is always a good way to start an evening out in my opinion and I did just that last night. I went with my sister Kari to a new martini bar near us. She was meeting up with a friend from an old job who had just moved to Cleveland. The friend, Kim, called close to meeting time to say that she could only come if she brings her aunt. Kari and I sat there wondering who the hell this “aunt” was and hoped she would be fun. Kim and the aunt walked in. There was a pause, a couple of squints, then the realization that the “aunt” is a good friend of ours who I’ve known and loved for 20 years — Jenny! Don’t you just love when life turns out like that?

Us gals, including Jenny’s daughter Erica and sister-in-law Cathleen, had a wonderful chat over wine and martinis. I, of course, ordered the PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE MARTINI. To make it, the bartender filled the bottom of a martini glass with grenadine, then put pineapple juice and vanilla vodka into a shaker. She filled the shaker with ice, then shook it vigorously to create an icy foam. She then slowly poured the pineapple foam down the side of the martini glass, so it created a separate layer on top of the grenadine.  

I’ve ordered this martini in many locations and this one was one of the best. It both looked and tasted like a pineapple upside down cake. Not all bartenders can pull off the foam top and I’m not sure I could either, but I’m gonna give it a try someday. Vanilla vodka and pineapple are great together, but this was a sweet drink. After one, I was done and off to see Galactic, an awesome funk band from New Orleans, with my other sibling, where I drank Heineken Tall Boys. Hey, a gal need variety!

Drink Up^

Cocktail Connie