Fresh Fruit Popsicles

Freezing in layers creates beautiful stripes. Don't skip the partial freezing between layers or colors will bleed together. Adding a bit of alcohol (1 tbsp vodka or rum) creates softer popsicles that are easier to eat. Silicone molds release popsicles most easily.

The popsicle is one of the most precisely documented accidental inventions in food history. In 1905, eleven-year-old Frank Epperson of Oakland, California mixed soda powder with water and accidentally left the glass on his porch overnight with the stirring stick still in it. Temperatures dropped to record lows, and the next morning he found the mixture frozen solid to the stick. He named his discovery the Epsicle — a blend of his own name and the word icicle — and made versions for his friends and, later, his own children. In 1922 he introduced the frozen treat at a fireman's ball in Alameda, where Wikipedia records it was "a sensation." In 1923, Epperson began selling it publicly at Neptune Beach, then nicknamed the West Coast Coney Island, in Alameda, California, and filed for a patent on his "frozen confectionery" in 1924. His children's name for it stuck: they called it "Pop's 'sicles," and the word became Popsicle. In 1925, facing financial difficulties, Epperson sold his rights to the Joe Lowe Company of New York, which sold the frozen pops for five cents and expanded distribution to Coney Island in Brooklyn. During the Great Depression, the company introduced the twin two-stick Popsicle so that two children could share one for a single nickel. The brand passed through several owners before Unilever's Good Humor division acquired it in 1989. Today, over two billion Popsicles are sold annually in the United States alone. Homemade fruit popsicles — built from whole fruit, minimal sugar, and a mould — emerged as a health-conscious alternative in the early 2000s, honouring the simplicity of Epperson's original concept while returning to fresh, identifiable ingredients.