Over the past 5 or so years, pudding shots have become my signature cocktail. From the start, my friends and family have been willing guinea pigs for my creations and they are never disappointed when I offer to bring them to a party. I’m constantly on the look out for inspiration for new recipes since I seem to have checked off most of the obvious options. This is why I was so excited two weeks ago when I visited my hometown’s new local distillery, Boardroom Spirits, and found out they have a carrot spirit. Now I know, carrot spirit sounds super weird, but as I was drinking a mixed drink containing it, which was surprisingly good, I realized that using carrot spirit I could probably make an awesome carrot cake pudding shot.

The more I thought about it, the more excited I got, and so I convinced my mom to go back to the distillery with me the next week for a tour so I could try the carrot cake spirit on its own (more to come on the tour in a future post) . On it’s own, it was smooth and well carroty.  While I don’t think I’ll ever be sipping carrot spirit on the rocks, I knew right away it would be perfect for my carrot cake pudding shot. So I set out to make a pudding shot featuring “C,” Boardroom Spirits’ name for their carrot spirit,  and based off of my favorite carrot cake recipe from Nick Malgieri’s cookbook Perfect Cakes”. The cake recipe has carrots, lots of cinnamon, pineapple, pecans, and of course cream cheese frosting. I decided to go with three types of alcohol in my pudding shot: Boardroom Spirits’ C, Fireball Whiskey, and Malibu’s Pineapple Rum. For the base, I went with the obvious choice, cheesecake pudding. Then I added some chopped pecans, a bit more cinnamon, and some of finely grated carrot for color, and voilà, the carrot cake pudding shot was born! While it’s a bit more boozy tasting upfront than some of my other pudding shot recipes, the end result was a perfect combination of flavors that really does taste like you’re eating carrot cake.

If you want to give this recipe a try, but don’t live close enough to Lansdale, PA to visit the distillery, don’t worry. You can buy the carrot spirit and their other delicious spirits online  here (in most states at least). Also be sure to check out our all our #puddingshots posts for other great recipes to wow your friends with!