Saturday, September 14, 2013

Cherry-Grape Ice Cubes

Cherry-Grape Ice Cubes in Sprite
I had the idea awhile ago to make little popsicles from cherries and grape juice.  I thought the stems could be like a popsicle stick and you could eat them by the stem, but the stems weren't strong enough. The stems came off or it would fall over when you held it by the stem upside down.  

So we decided to make them ice cubes instead.  :)

My sister Selah really likes cherries, so we let her help with this recipe.  

Selah wearing her cherry outfit,
showing the ingredients.
Selah loves cherries!
So do I! 
We strained the cherry juice out of the jar, and we're going to use it to make snow cones, but that's for another recipe...

For this recipe, you need:
  • Grape juice
  • Cherries (Maraschino cherries)
  • Almond extract
Our mold is a flower mold, which we got from Ikea (I think), but you can use any type of mold.  (An ice cube tray is a mold and works too!)

Since we have a flower mold, we put cherries in the middle to look like the middle of a daisy.  


I chose grape juice for the petals.  Cherries and almonds taste good together, so I decided to add a few drops of almond extract to the grape juice.  (Daddy says it's because of "benzaldehyde," a chemical that's in both of them.)  

I'm using a pipette for the almond extract.
(The almond extract was clear, so it didn't change the color at all.)
To use this kind of pipette, you squeeze the top, place the tip in the almond extract, let go of the black part and the almond extract goes up!  You take it to where you need it, squeeze it again and it goes down.  :)  We used a pipette, because if you poured it, it could overflow.  Using a pipette, you know how much you're putting in so it doesn't overflow.  

We added the almond extract to the grape juice and stirred it.  We used a big pipette for the grape juice, because we needed more than a small one could hold, and if we poured the grape juice from the bottle, it would've made a big mess!  

Using a big pipette for the grape juice
After we put the grape juice in the molds, we put the molds in the freezer for the night, but it only takes a few hours to freeze.    

Taking the Cherry-Grape ice cubes out of the mold.
Doesn't it look like a real flower almost?!
We poured a can of Sprite into a glass, and put the Cherry-Grape ice cubes into the glass.  We used Sprite because it was clear, but you could also use any fruit soda, cola, lemonade, other fruit juices, and even water!

After they're added to the drink, they start to melt.  
In this video, you can see the melting.
When you stir it up, it melts very quickly. I thought the color was going to change to purple, but it changed to red instead.   
Look, it turned red!
It tastes good too and would be great for parties!
Please leave comments of ways you use them.