On the Second Day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . .

On the First Day of Christmas my true love sent to me . . . a partridge in a pear tree!
On the Second Day of Christmas my true love sent to me . . . Two Turtle Doves . . . and a partridge in a pear tree!!

A while back I was contacted by the people at Innocent Drinks and asked if I would like to develop a Mocktail to do with the Twelve Days of Christmas for a part of their Christmas Festivities!  It sounded like fun and so I said sure and I was given the challenge of creating a mocktail for the Second Day of Christmas.

I had a lot of fun doing this.  They sent me a cocktail shaker and a muddler  and a few other little bits and I was off and running.  I thought to myself . . . I wanted to do something very fruity, and spicy and warm . . . and sparkly.

This is the Mulled Turtle Dove Sparkler.  No turtle doves were injured in the creation of it.  It's a lovely warm drink, filled with the flavours of black berries, apples, ginger, cinnamon and cloves . . .  festively spiced and topped with popping candy and gold glitter  for some extra sparkle and fun!

I'm not sure if you can download the recipe card properly or not, so I will copy the recipe here, but take note . . . a downloadable e-book of all the drinks will be made available from Innocent Drinks  from the 26th of December!  (mmm . . . love their banana free kiwi apple and lime smoothies.  They're my favourite!)

Source: projectdecor.com via Renae on Pinterest

*A Mulled Turtle Dove Sparkler*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

Turtle doves are hard to find down the corner shop so we decided to do away with them altogether and concentrate on blending delicious wintery flavours and spices to create this festive mocktail.

Ingredients:
750ml of Innocent Apple juice (3 cups)
4 cans of ginger beer (330ml size, so about 5 cups)
1 small punnet of blackberries (about 1 cup)
2 thick slices of fresh ginger-root
1 cinnamon stick, broken
a few whole cloves
2 sweet red eating apples, thickly sliced
1 pot of popping candy

Pour the apple juice into a large saucepan with the broken cinnamon stick and the cloves.  Mash the blackberries and the ginger root with a muddler and add them to the saucepan.  Bring the mixture to the boil, and then let it simmer for about 5 minutes.  Strain into a clean pot and add the apple slices and ginger beer.  Heat through (without letting it boil) before ladling into heated mugs.

Cut the apples into festive shapes, (perhaps a star or snowflake) using a sharp cookie cutter.  Top each drink with a slice.  For an extra measure of fun, try spooning some popping candy on top of each and dust with gold edible glitter, or use extra cinnamon sticks as swizzle sticks.

Be sure to check out their Facebook Page so that you can keep up with all of the drinks for the 12 Days of Christmas!

IF I have been able to do it correctly clicking on THIS will take you to a dropbox where you can download the recipe card. Finger's crossed!

Source: cutestpaw.com via Marie on Pinterest

Happy Holidays!