Magic Crystal-clear Ice Cubes and Other Genius Things To Do With Ice Cube Trays
Jello Cube Shots
Parties are supposed to be fun, and our ice cube trays can provide endless possibilities. We can try making homemade jelly shots by dissolving the gelatin, pouring in our choice of alcohol, and then freezing it in the tray. The good thing is that these are less strong than cocktails, depending on the recipe used.
Still, no matter how cute the results are, they are out of bounds for children. They can try other fun tricks with their ice cubes.
Portioning Cookie Dough
Dividing cookie dough is one task that even the most experienced baker may struggle to perfect, especially when they don’t have a scooper handy. However, an ice cube tray will come in handy to divide the dough evenly. And that’s not the only cookie dough hack.
Making a batch of cookies means ending up with cookies everywhere, a disadvantage when they’re irresistible! So why not freeze individual cookie dough mounds in an ice cube tray and bake them on demand?
Frozen Garbage Freshener
According to Utah State University, vinegar and lemon are acidic and have the ability to neutralize alkaline substances such as scale from hard water. In the same vein, the combination is just the perfect solution for when the garbage bin starts to release unpleasant odors, and it’s advisable to have it handy.
While vinegar is not the best thing to keep in the fridge, freezing it with small lemon slices will help keep the foul odor away and disinfect garbage cans.
The Perfect Summer Frappé
When summertime comes around each year, it’s hard to keep away from refreshing cold drinks, and it’s crucial to have them in the fridge, especially for the kids. For the perfect thirst-quenching smoothie, freeze some fruit juice in an ice cube tray and simply blend it when the sun gets too hot.
Better yet, the kids can do it for themselves but under supervision. Letting them learn important chores, such as preparing a snack, helps them grow into more responsible adults.
The Organizer
Research shows that disorganization leads to stress and anxiety. This is worrying, considering there’s always that one disorganized drawer in any room in the house that no one ever bothers to arrange. That need not worry us now, as with an extra ice cube tray, disorganization can be a thing of the past.
Use it when organizing small items, or it could even be a makeshift jewelry box for storing beads, earrings, dainty pendants, and other accessories. No more worries about lost earrings!
Homemade Seedling Bed
Millions of people around the world are beginning to embrace gardening as a soothing, family-friendly hobby that also provides extra food. One look at the internet is enough to tell us the importance of gardens, and we do not need to worry about space when we have ice cube trays.
These ice makers are just the perfect size for seed starters. With a bit of soil and a drainage hole at the bottom of each compartment, we’re ready to go!
Artist’s Palette
Painting is a significant way for children to convey ideas and emotions, explore color, and unleash their artistic talents. This is why parents prioritize every item required for the craft, but who said they couldn’t save some money with some simple ice cube tray improvisations?
Old ice cube trays make the perfect paint or watercolor holders as the compartments are deep enough to hold more paint without mixing the colors, something that often happens with expensive but shallow paint palettes.
Neverending Herb Garden
With the introduction of home gardens, we can now grow almost all the food we require rather than relying on grocery stores. Some common herbs, such as sage, rosemary, and thyme, grow easily in our home gardens, but the surplus could soon go to waste.
We’d be hard-pressed to find a better way to keep these herbs fresh once we pick them from the garden other than to freeze them in olive oil and butter, as the oil also assimilates the flavor.
Preserving Bacon Drippings
Bacon drippings are among the most delicious flavors, and we’d be lying if we said that we didn’t wish we could always have them on hand. But what if we told you that we finally found the perfect solution to this annoying problem? Well, guess what? We found it in ice cube trays!
Pouring bacon drippings into an ice cube tray and storing it in the fridge or freezer ultimately saves money, as we don’t have to cook bacon whenever we want it.
Watered Down Coffee? No, Thank You
Have you ever made a piping hot cup of java but needed to gulp it down? We bet you came up with the solution of cooling it down with ice blocks. But the ice simply watered down your brew. How frustrating!
We have the best solution. Just freeze coffee in an ice cube tray. Next time you need to cool down your beverage, the coffee cubes will do the trick without watering down the flavor! This could also be useful when making iced coffee.
Sushi the Modern Way
Most of us love sushi, but do you know that it was initially Japanese food, and the first time it was sold outside Tokyo was in 1970? It has now become a favorite delicacy in various places worldwide. The Japanese spend years perfecting the craft of making sushi, but who needs years when we’ve got ice cube trays?
Cover the tray with cling wrap, and add toppings, rice, avocado, and sesame layers before chilling and flipping the tray upside down.
Preserved Buttermilk
Baking would never be the same without buttermilk. Avid bakers can use cartons of this essential daily. But some recipes only call for a small amount, so the rest could go to waste if we don’t find a way to store the leftovers. But why should it go bad when we have our trusty ice cube trays?
Filling the tray compartments with buttermilk while leaving ample space to accommodate expansion, then freezing it will ensure that we have enough supply any time we need it.
Chocolate Milk
The best chocolate milk is made by melting real chocolate in hot milk. A great way to store chocolate is by melting it, pouring it into ice cube trays, and freezing it. When the desire for hot chocolate arises, pop out a couple of cold chocolate cubes and add them to hot milk.
It looks aesthetically pleasing when the chunky chocolate cubes melt into hot milk. The cold chocolate will lower the temperature of the scalding milk so you can enjoy it.
Homemade Baby Food
Every parent wants the best for their children; there’s no doubt about that. This is one of the many reasons most parents always prefer to make their babies’ meals at home. However, sometimes they get busy, and there’s no time to prepare a meal for the child.
Why not prepare for such situations in advance? Freezing portions of baby food in an ice cube tray ensures that all we have to do is warm it and add milk or water to thin it out.
Useful For Cooking or Cooling
Adding ice to wine, especially white, is common practice. Some people enjoy chilled red wine too. But the catch is that the ice waters down the vine as it melts. Now there is a solution to cool your drink as well as saving leftover wine from going to waste.
Simply freeze leftover wine it in an ice cube tray. You can use the cubes to cool your next drink, or you could add a few cubes of wine when a recipe calls for it without opening a new bottle!
Green Tea for the Skin
Green tea is one of the most relaxing types of beverage. Aside from calming our nerves, helping us lose weight, and providing antioxidants to help the body’s immunity against diseases. We can also get more from it by turning it into ice cubes using ice cube trays.
Removing the cube’s sharp edges and rubbing it on the face is guaranteed to address open pores and inflammation, as well as lighten dark spots that make some people self-conscious about their skin.
Guess the Fruit
Children love to have fun almost all of the time. It’s no surprise, considering it encourages them to be kind and promotes good morals, as per Tribeca Play Therapy. As parents, we must always keep things fun, and one way to do so is by moving away from the regular ice cubes.
Before freezing water, we can add fruits to every compartment and watch kids try to guess which fruit they have in their cups before finishing their chilled beverage.
Mini Ice Pops
Summer is all fun and games, no doubt about that. Of course, this is only until it gets too hot to be outdoors. It’s natural to sweat, but we also need to cool our brains and eyes with some cold snacks once in a while.
The good news is that we don’t have to buy a whole tub of ice cream. Instead, we can use ice cube trays to make mini popsicles and have one every time we feel the heat.
Beautiful Cubes
Ice cubes are suitable for casual parties and other formal events, such as high teas, receptions, and baby showers. Here, capturing attention with the best elegant drinks is crucial, so how about adding some edible flowers to the water when filling the ice cube trays?
The only trick with this hack is to know the type of flowers to use. For instance, lavender is edible, but it’s mainly known for its fragrance. We can try pansies, hibiscus, nasturtium, rose petals, lilac, violets, and more.
Colored Water
According to Healthy Children, children between the ages of one and eight should drink at least four to five glasses of liquid per day, preferably water. However, every parent knows just how hard it can be to convince a five-year-old to gulp even a single glass, but no more!
Children love colors. Adding natural food color to water before freezing in an ice cube tray may trick the child into thinking that they’re taking another beverage, while it’s just their daily dose of water.
Aloe Vera Cubes
Being in the sun for extended periods is something no one wants to encounter. The same goes for its effect; suffering from burned skin. Luckily, there are many proven ways to tame the inflammation, including using anything cool such as a towel, an ice pack, or cold water.
We also know that aloe vera works wonders for our skin. So why not hit two birds with one stone by freezing the sticky aloe vera mixture in an ice cube tray and freeze?
Fruity Frozen Yoghurt
Yogurt is among the most nutritious treats, and it’s no wonder many health-conscious people add it to their diets. It contains calcium, vitamins, and probiotics, which help with gut microbiota. However, not all varieties are as healthy, considering some include numerous sweeteners and preservatives.
With an ice cube tray, that will be the least of our worries, as we can freeze a mixture of the unsweetened Greek variant blended with our favorite fruits to result in a nice healthy treat.
Crystal Clear Ice Cubes
Making ice cubes is a no-brainer for anyone. Just put water in an ice cube tray and place it in the freezer. However, most of our homemade cubes emerge opaque, which is a stark contrast compared with the ones we see in bars, but who said we couldn’t make our own?
Bars use special machines to produce theirs, but we don’t need that. Use a special tray that allows directional freezing. The simple solution is using distilled water that’s been boiled, then cooled.
Jello Cube Shots
Parties are supposed to be fun, and our ice cube trays can provide endless possibilities. We can try making homemade jelly shots by dissolving the gelatin, pouring in our choice of alcohol, and then freezing it in the tray. The good thing is that these are less strong than cocktails, depending on the recipe used.
Still, no matter how cute the results are, they are out of bounds for children. They can try other fun tricks with their ice cubes.
Souvenir Candles
Apart from the usual plastic and ceramic ice cube trays, silicon, and stainless ones are also great at holding hot liquids. This includes candle wax to make fabulous tea-light candles without too much fuss.
The wax from old candles can be repurposed in this way, especially when we add color, pour it into the mold, add a wick, and let it set for a while. We don’t even have to put it in the refrigerator because cooling leads to hardening.
Filling Pasta
Pasta is one of the world’s most famous foods. While it has its origins in Italy, it is now a favorite meal for many people all around the world. Subsequently, there have been numerous pasta recipes invented but pasta with fillings still stands out, such as ravioli and tortellini.
It’s easy to make, too; just lay the dough on an ice cube tray and add the filling. Place another layer of dough on top and cut it into smaller squares.
Taking Stock
Making stock from fresh produce is not only a great way to save money but also safer and more natural instead of artificial ones that are laden with preservatives. However, the issue lies with a large number of leftovers, so the trick is to freeze them for the following recipes.
After boiling, the fat should be left to solidify, the hard layer scooped off, and the ladle used for easy pouring into the ice cube tray. Now you have convenient measures of stock on hand!
Chewy Ice
As surprising as it may sound, there are actually different types of ice cubes, ranging from regular cubes to spheres. However, one variety that has gained popularity in the past few years is the chewy or nugget ice. As the name suggests, these are relatively soft and easy to chew compared to regular ice.
Apart from being interesting, it is also easy to make. Just get a nugget ice cube tray with smaller compartments, and fill it with carbonated water before freezing.
DIY Bath Bombs
The bigger old ice cube trays in our homes are perfect for making homemade bath bombs. Simply mix one cup of baking soda, half a cup of citric acid, half a cup of Epsom salt, half a cup of cornstarch, and a few drops of essential oil and water in a bowl and press it into the tray compartments.
After settling for a day, we can use them for our bath or even to keep shoes and carpets smelling nice.
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