Apart from a couple of weeks of exceptionally hot weather a month or so ago, summer seems to have completely evaded us this year. To be honest, I don’t love London when it gets really hot as there’s nowhere to escape the heat and it leaves me craving the beach life. But I think I’m definitely trying to coax the summer with my baking at the moment!! I’m a little late to the popsicle party but I definitely love these little naughty treats which are the most delicious mini frozen cocktails on a stick. Super delicious :) And they are getting me in the mood for our summer holiday this year as we prepare to jet off to Portugal for some long overdue R&R!
I love the colour of these lollies which comes from the cranberry juice as they look so colourful and summery. I also love their versatility as you can mix and match flavours and add little bonus extra goodies! These little cocktails are cranberry juice, apple juice, ginger ale, vodka and mixed berries. They are ridiculously simple to make — as simple as making yourself a cocktail in a glass. But you can keep them in the freezer and sneak one in whenever you feel the need. Well, it is the summer holidays after all and the days are long with two little ones in tow!!
You will need to apply a little maths for this recipe but I promise you it won’t be difficult. My ice pop mold makes really small ice pops but you should use whichever molds you have available. So what you need to do is work out the quantity of liquid you need to fill all the cavities of your mold and then scale the recipe up or down accordingly. This recipe makes 1600ml of cocktail so just prepare the % of it you need to fill your own mold.
Alcohol doesn’t fully freeze so don’t worry if parts of your ice pops are a little slushier than others - I think this adds to the overall prettiness of them and helps the berries peep through to add some extra texture.
I hope you enjoy these as much as I did - so fun to make and even more fun to eat!! We’re off on holiday for the next couple of weeks so I will be back with a new blog post then and in the meantime will be filling up my instagram with lots of lovely images from our travels and other baking that I’ve been enjoying :) xo
cranberry, apple & ginger fruity ice pops
makes 9 ice pops
ingredients
- a couple of handfuls of fresh or frozen mixed berries (you need a few berries for each cavity of your mold)
- 100ml vodka (7% of the overall liquid)
- 400ml cranberry juice (31% of the overall liquid)
- 400ml apple juice (31% of the overall liquid)
- 400ml ginger beer (31% of the overall liquid)
- ice pop mold and lolly sticks
method
- first of all, work out how much liquid you need to fill your cavities - you will have a little more than you need as the berries will take up some of the space, but you can drink any leftovers!
- add a few berries to each cavity
- mix the vodka, cranberry, apple juice and ginger beer together in a jug and wait for the bubbles from the ginger beer to subside
- carefully fill each cavity with the cocktail mix
- freeze the pops for around an hour and then remove them from the freezer and add the little sticks to each one
- re-freeze until frozen - if you have little children in the house, make sure that you don’t have them freely available for little hands to sneak one if they find them in the freezer!!
- enjoy on your own but especially with friends :)