Gloria Swanson’s Champagne Cocktail and Caviar Canapés

I had a fabulous time introducing Sunset Boulevard at the gorgeous Electric Palace Cinema in Hastings last night.

It was the second of my Silver Screen Sippers events,

so naturally, there was a special cocktail available!

Namely a Champagne Cocktail Gloria Swanson – thanks to Rebecca at the Electric who made these perfectly.  Thanks also to Mr R who gave much moral support, I was weirdly nervous about giving the introduction.

I mentioned the Gloria Swanson’s Caviar Canapés recipe in my introduction and promised to share the recipe and the formula for the Champagne Cocktail too, in case you fancy having a star-spangled event of your own – on your own sofa!

This would make for a very LARGE cocktail as an American pint is around 475 ml. Mr R and myself did much experimenting to work out the formula for a perfect Champagne Cocktail for one.  (It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.) We decided that ½ oz cognac to 120 ml champagne was just the ticket.

I’ve made Gloria Swanson’s Caviar Canapés a few times – they are weird but definitely a talking point at a party!  Here’s a pic showing the stages of construction with one of Gloria’s cocktails to fuel the assembly line…

and here’s the recipe.

Sunset Boulevard is movie of the month over on my Dinner and a Movie blog so do skip over there for more movie related recipes, including William Holden’s bonkers Lime Gelatine with Carrots, Olives and Nuts

Here’s me doing my best Norma Desmond impression…

Now that is an ice-breaker!

Here’s a lovely bit of 1920s ephemera I stumbled upon this morning – thank-you internet!  From a Daily Breeze article dated March 22, 1928.

Love that intro – butterfly tongues!  The illustration is fab too, Gloria and Mary having lunch together.

I have a copy of the book these recipes are taken from, Favorite Recipes of Famous Women, and it is fab.

Finally, if you want to see me and Mr R mucking about during the first pandemic lock-down, here’s one of our Quarantini Times videos.  When the pubs were shut for THREE MONTHS we made a movie star cocktail every Friday.  Here’s the Gloria one.

Bottoms up!

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