Photography © Brett Stevens

Ice blocks

If there’s one quick way to cool the kids down on those long hot summer days and nights, it’s sucking on an ice block (or icy pop, popsicle, ice lolly, icy pole – or whatever else you call it in your neck of the woods). They are very quick, easy and reasonably cheap to make at home — and you don’t need an ice cream machine! — so why not have a few ready in the freezer for the little ones and kid-ults in your life. They’re also a great way to utilise an affordable glut of fresh seasonal fruit.

Makes six 90 ml (3 fl oz) ice blocks

1 quantity of your choice of the recipes in What’s your summer flavour fancy?

Basically you’ll need 540 ml (19 fl oz) of some form of liquid to fill the moulds. You can follow the ingredient quantities in the mini recipes over the page, or choose your own ingredients and experiment to your heart’s delight.

Once you have made your liquid mixture (note that some will be closer to a purée than water) based on the recipes below and over the page, you need to divide the mixture among six 90 ml (3 fl oz) ice block moulds, then pop on the lids with the sticks that come with the moulds.

Some of these recipes will ask you to fill the moulds in stages for a layered look, and will freeze part of the mixture for a short time first — without the lids and sticks — but once the moulds are filled to the top, you should freeze them for 8 hours, or overnight, to ensure they are frozen solid.

To serve, you may need to dip the outside of the ice block mould very briefly in hot water, or, if serving one at a time, hold a hot clean washcloth around the outside of each ice block until it slips out of the mould. Each mould is different, so follow the manufacturer’s instructions for best results.

Photography © Brett Stevens

Raspberries & cream

Put 125 g (4½ oz/1 cup) fresh or frozen raspberries in a food processor with 60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) Sugar syrup and process until smooth. Divide among six moulds and freeze for 1 hour. Combine 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) thin (pouring) cream with ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon Sugar syrup and 30 g (1 oz/¼ cup) very lightly crushed fresh or frozen raspberries. Divide among the moulds, over the top of the set raspberry purée. Pop the stick lids on and freeze as instructed above.