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The holidays are finally upon us! This hopefully means you have some free time to relax in your favorite reading chair and read a book by candlelight. To make your holiday reading even more special, pour yourself a glass of the perfect beverage to go with whatever genre your heart has chosen.

María del Mar Sacasa and Tara Striano, the duo behind Quirk’s Winter Cocktails and the wonderful blog Cookin’ & Shootin’, whipped up a really cute promo video for their upcoming book.

Have a look, and make sure you scope out their blog for more fun food adventures.

Skittles flavored vodka. I repeat, Skittles. Flavored. Vodka.

Recipes like this are why it’s great to be a grown-up: sure, fruity candy is tasty, but wouldn’t it be better if it were…boozier? This is a great and inexpensive gift for friends who need a pop of color on their bar, or just a fun and easy way to fancy up your cocktails at home. Best of all, it’s as simple as pouring things in jars—but it’s a two-day process, so plan accordingly.

Mint Julep, Photo by Robert S. Donovan

Cocktail recipes and drink suggestions, inspired by our favorite pieces of literature! Sip away whilst reading a great piece of writing. Just don’t drink too much. We’d like you to remember it later.

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Gimlet photo by Michael Korcuska

Gimlet & Raymond Chandler’s Mystery Novels: Philip Marlowe, the primary character in Raymond Chandler’s mystery novels, helped to cement the classic noir archetype of the hard drinkin’ detective. In The Long Goodbye, Marlowe spends an awful lot of time drinking gin gimlets with his new buddy, Terry Lennox. According to Lennox, “‘What they call a gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice and gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow.”

And so:

2 oz Gin

2 oz Rose’s Lime Juice

Be a totally badass detective and get wrapped up in all kinds of crazy, violent, and convoluted conspiracies involving sexy women with guns and even more alcohol.

A classic kids birthday favorite turned indulgent adult treat, this Spiked Ice Cream Cake will be the star of your next get-together.

Every part of this cake, from the ice cream filling to the cake itself to the frosting, is infused with booze (in this case, bourbon). Plus, changing up the flavor of the cake, ice cream, or both allows you to create new and exciting cakes all summer long!

Spiked Ice Cream Cake
From Booze Cakes by Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone

Here’s an adult version of everyone’s favorite birthday cake. This recipe makes a chocolatey bourbon-laced cake that’s filled with bourbon-spiked ice cream and topped with still more bourbon-infused frosting. You can experiment with any imaginable combination of cake, alcohol, ice cream, and frosting.

Spiked Ice Cream

– 4 cups (2 pints) cherry vanilla ice cream, partially melted
– ¼ to ½ cup bourbon
– A few drops food coloring, if desired

Bourbon Devil’s Food Cake

– ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
– 1 ¾ cups sugar
– 2 eggs
– ½ cup + 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
– 1 ½ cups cake flour
– ¼ teaspoon baking powder
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– ½ teaspoon salt
– ½ cup milk
– ¼ cup espresso or strong coffee
– ¼ cup bourbon

Creamy Vanilla Bourbon Frosting

– 1 ½ cups heavy cream
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
– 2 tablespoons bourbon

PREPARE:

– Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9- or 10-inch tube pan.

– For the spiked ice cream: Stir together ice cream, bourbon, and food coloring; freeze overnight. 

MAKE:

– Thaw spiked ice cream for 20 minutes or microwave on low in 60-second intervals until soft.

– For the cake: In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar 3 to 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs.

– Combine cocoa, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Combine milk, espresso, and bourbon. Beat the flour and bourbon mixtures into the butter mixture in three alternating additions. Pour the batter into the cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

– For the frosting: In a mixing bowl, beat cream and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla and bourbon.

FINISH:

– Slice off the top fourth of the cake horizontally and set aside. Place the remaining cake on a freezer-safe plate. With a thin serrated knife, gently score around the inner edge, about ¾ inch from the edge and no deeper than 1 inch from the bottom of the cake. Repeat with outer edge. With a serrated spoon, carefully scoop out the cake between the scores to create a tunnel. Freeze 1 hour. (Go for it! Eat the scooped-out cake while you’re waiting.)

– Remove the cake from the freezer. Fill the center tunnel with softened bourbon-spiked ice cream. Put the top layer back on, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze at least 4 hours. Frost, and then freeze 30 minutes before serving.

Flavor variations are endless! Try these combinations or mix and match to suit your taste:

Bourbon Chocolate Caramel-Vanilla Ice Cream Cake — For the ice cream: Replace cherry vanilla with caramel vanilla swirl.

Rum Mocha Ice Cream Cake – For the cake and ice cream: Prepare a chocolate cake in a tube pan. Add ½ cup rum to the batter before baking. Fill with coffee ice cream that has been spiked with rum. For the frosting: Substitute rum for the bourbon and chocolate extract for the vanilla.

Vodka Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Cake – For the cake: Prepare a chocolate cake in a tube pan. Add ½ cup vodka to the batter before baking. Fill with mint chocolate chip ice cream that has been spiked with vodka. For the frosting: Substitute rum for the bourbon and mint extract for the vanilla.

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Photo by Jason Ilagan

To commemorate Orwell’s big 109, you may find yourself determined to shoot a rampaging elephant. Or challenge Big Brother with your thoughtcrimes. Or even brush up on your doublethink. But at the end of your day, you can celebrate Orwell and the proletariat spirit with this drink in featured in 1984.

Much as Orwell favored the economy of words in his Politics of the English Language, this drink rejects the bells and whistles of bourgeois cocktails, incorporating nothing but the essentials. Bottoms up!