A Screwdriver is a popular highball drink made with fresh orange juice and vodka. The drink got its name because the American engineers surreptitiously added vodka to small cans of orange juice and stirred the mixture with their screwdrivers.

The earliest written reference to the Screwdriver is from the October 24, 1949 issue of Time: “In the dimly lighted bar of the sleek Park Hotel, Turkish intelligence agents mingle with American engineers and Balkan refugees, drinking the latest Yankee concoction of vodka and orange juice, called a ‘Screwdriver’.”

I am a cocktail kind of girl. Maybe the sweetness of the chilled alcoholic beverage is what appeals to me. Wine I find sour, Beer I find bitter and of course Whiskey takes bitterness to another level for me, I’m unashamed to say. I’ve tasted most of the sweet flavoured cocktails and I love most of them.

In my throes of culinary inventiveness, I dreamed up my series of cakes tasting like my favourite cocktails. Developing the recipes, I realised that all the goodness of fresh fruit, dried fruit and herbs was being used to flavour my cakes. So, in fact they are nutritious cakes.  To add the alcohol or not is an option. I’ve kept the base cake recipe the same, adding flavourings and alcohol according to the cocktail I was being inspired by.

My post on the series of cocktail flavoured cakes can be read on Cocktail in a Cake.

Screwdriver Cocktail Cake

Ingredients ~

100 gms soft butter
100 gms caster sugar
110 gms flour
¼ tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 small Mandarin Orange
¼ cup Vodka

Preparation ~

Boil the Mandarin orange till soft, remove the seeds and blend the whole orange into a smooth paste.

Method ~

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar till pale and double in volume.
2. Add one egg at a time, beating into the batter till well incorporated.
3. Add the orange paste into the batter.
4. Gently stir in the Vodka.
5. Sift the flour and baking powder and fold into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into a greased and floured baking tin.
7. Bake at 160*C for 25-30 minutes or till done.
8. Decorate with orange slices.