How could a combination of dessert and cocktails be a BAD idea? Some of the best sweets I’ve ever eaten have been enhanced with a little spirits. Think rum sauce on bread pudding.

At a recent book club meeting (We read “Bossypants” by Tina Fey), my colleague Meg Martin made some amazing food. This was no surprise to me because Meg always has a table full of interesting dishes whenever I visit her place. One of the standouts was a smashed pea spread that was heavenly on crackers. I’ll attach that recipe to the end of this post for anybody who is interested.

But back to the sweets. Meg made a Mojito pie that had a crushed pretzel crust and a creamy, frozen body. It had a delicate flavor of lime, a touch of rum and that cold, ice cream-like consistency that was perfect for summer. Here is a link to the pie recipe.

Also last week, another colleague brought me a recipe for margarita cake, which looks like a bundt cake made with frozen margarita concentrate, vanilla pudding and lime zest with a lime-heavy glaze on top. I have not made it yet because I don’t do a lot of cake baking in the dog days of summer, but you can bet I’m saving this for autumn. Look for the recipe below.

Do you have a favorite dessert made with booze?

Note: I’ll be out on Monday and Tuesday of next week, so the blog may be slow. But check out PlateUp and the Storefront for any food news! Have a great weekend!

Margarita Cake

1 stick butter, softened
4 eggs
1 box white cake mix
1 box instant vanilla pudding mix (small box)
1 can (10 oz.) frozen margarita concentrate, completely thawed
2 tsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. lime zest

For the glaze:
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. lime zest
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (more or less)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a Bundt cake pan.
2. Mix butter, eggs, margarita concentrate, lime juice and zest together.
3. Add cake mix and pudding mix until well-blended.
4. Pour batter in pan and bake 45 to 55 minutes. Let cool 10 to 15 minutes, then remove cake from pan.
5. While cake is cooling, in saucepan melt butter. Add remaining glaze ingredients and stir until smooth. Drizzle glaze over cake while it is still warm.

Source: www.justapinch.com

Smashed Pea Spread

1 bag (10 oz.) frozen peas, thawed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Sea salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
3 oz. grated manchego cheese

Pulse all the ingredients in a food processor, like you’re making a pesto. Meg did the cheese first, then the peas, then the olive oil, then the salt/pepper.

Meg’s notes: Instead of Manchego, I used pecorino Romano, because the Manchego was really expensive. You could use just about any sharp, hard cheese like that. But I’d stick to the Italians and the Spanish, mostly. Maybe you could use a Croatian cheese, too. They’ve got some nice sharp, hard cheeses, as well. But they tend to be pretty expensive, too.

This spread is good on crostini or crackers. I’ll betcha it’d be good if you assembled it on crostini with a teensy piece of super-crisp smoked bacon or pancetta and a sliver of Manchego/Pecorino Romano, too. But I’ve not tried that.