Card-Party Fruit Cup (1927)
A sparkling mocktail served over decorative home-frozen ice cubes.
- Original yieldYield
- 1 drink1 drink
- PrepPrep time
- TotalTotal time
Allow 4 hours to freeze the decorative ice cubes.
Published Updated
Original recipe: 1 drink
The story behind the recipe
The decoration is already in the ice. A red cherry and a green mint leaf sit inside each cube, waiting for a pale drink of grape juice, lemon and ginger ale. Make the cubes first and the final mixing is brief, leaving the little frozen details visible through the glass.
Prepare one cheerful detail ahead
This alcohol-free fruit cup is built around that decorative ice rather than an elaborate garnish added at the last moment. White grape juice keeps the background pale, lemon brings tartness, and cold ginger ale supplies sweetness and bubbles. A punch cup or tumbler gives the cubes room alongside the liquid.
Read more about this recipe
Refreshments waiting for the card table
Alice Bradley's 1927 Electric Refrigerator Menus and Recipes, published for General Electric, includes advice for afternoon bridge. Salads and desserts can be prepared in the morning, fruit-punch ingredients combined, decorated ice made ready, and charged-water bottles chilled. The point is practical: refreshments can be carried to the tables without a long absence from the guests.
A separate recipe describes garnished ice cubes. Bradley offers cherries, mint and other decorations as alternatives, and explains a staged freezing method that holds a decoration in the center. That gives us both the serving context and the specific preparation idea behind this cup.
The book is a manufacturer's cookbook, showing things its electric refrigerator could help a host prepare. The bridge passage gives it a particularly sociable use: the cold work happens before the refreshments reach the card tables.
A modern drink around a historical idea
The white grape juice, fresh lemon juice and ginger ale blend is our own. Bradley's bridge paragraph doesn't give those juices in these amounts. It mentions fruit-punch preparation and charged water, leaving the exact formula unstated in that passage.
We combine a cherry and a mint leaf in each cube, while Bradley lists individual decorations as options. Ginger ale also changes the mixer from plain charged water. The resulting cup has a little ginger flavor as well as the fruit juices.
The grape juice contributes sweetness without a dark color masking the decorations. Lemon keeps the blend tart, and ginger ale adds its own flavor along with carbonation. There is no spirit in the ingredient list. The cubes do the visual work, so there is no need to add a second collection of fruit around the rim.
Centered cubes, or the simpler tray method
The main method puts the cherry and mint into the tray and freezes the filled compartments. For a more centered decoration, Bradley's staged idea appears in the notes: freeze part of the water first, add the decoration with a little more water to hold it, then complete the cube. That takes more attention but gives you control over where the fruit and leaf sit.
The freezing allowance belongs to the ice preparation, not a long chilling stage for the assembled drink. Once the cubes are solid, mix the individual cup at serving time and finish with cold ginger ale. A gentle stir brings the ingredients together without treating the sparkling mixer like a shaken ingredient.
For more servings, plan enough decorated cubes as well as enough juice and ginger ale. This is also an approachable introduction to Bradley's refrigerator recipes: a small use of freezing with a clear result, before tackling her molded salads or layered desserts.
Make it your wayOriginal: 1 serving · Makes 1 drink
Original recipe: 1 drink
Ingredients
For 1 drink. Quantities are shown as written.
Source measurement convention: Metric. Explicit unit definitions take precedence; unconfirmed measures must be checked before conversion.
Original quantities for 1 drink.
- Maraschino cherries (for ice cubes)4
- Fresh mint leaves (for ice cubes)4
- White grape juice60 ml
- Fresh lemon juice30 ml
- Cold ginger ale90 ml
Measurement notes
Measurement notes
Original ingredients
- 4 maraschino cherries (for ice cubes)
- 4 fresh mint leaves (for ice cubes)
- 60 ml white grape juice
- 30 ml fresh lemon juice
- 90 ml cold ginger ale
Equipment
Standard ice cube tray
Punch cup or tumbler
Instructions
Freeze decorated ice cubes
Prepare the ice in advance. Place one maraschino cherry and one fresh mint leaf into each of four compartments of a standard ice cube tray. Fill the tray carefully with water and freeze until solid.
Add the decorated ice
When ready to serve, place four of the decorated freezer ice cubes into a punch cup or tumbler.
Pour in the juices
Pour the white grape juice and fresh lemon juice over the ice.
Top with ginger ale
Top with the cold ginger ale and stir gently to combine.
Estimated calories 110 kcal
Nutrition portion: whole recipe · Original yield: 1 drink
Source & assumptions
Ingredient-based estimate using CoFID 2021, USDA SR Legacy (April 2018), identified manufacturer information. Approximately 110 kcal per nutrition portion. Uses unsweetened white grape juice and regular ginger ale. Counts all four maraschino cherries; mint leaves are excluded. Ingredients, brands and preparation affect values.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Scale liquid ingredients proportionally. Prepare enough decorated ice cubes in advance for all servings.
Original recipe notes
These notes describe the original recipe. Quantities mentioned here do not change when you adjust servings.
For centered decorations, half-fill four compartments and freeze until solid. Add the cherries and mint with a little water, freeze until held in place, then fill the compartments and finish freezing.
White grape juice provides a neutral, pale background that allows the decorative ice to remain clearly visible in the glass.
Read the scaling guide. Times, temperatures and equipment need their own consideration. Open the recipe tool to review and correct individual amounts.
Sources and attribution
Serving ideas and decorated ice inspired by Alice Bradley, Electric Refrigerator Menus and Recipes (General Electric, copyright 1927; fourth edition, September 1928), pp. 18 and 55. The juice blend is modern.
Alice Bradley, Electric Refrigerator Menus and Recipes (General Electric, copyright 1927; fourth edition, September 1928), pp. 18 and 55. The serving idea and decorative ice come from Bradley; the juice blend, ginger ale and combined cherry-and-mint cubes are modern choices.
Recipe details
- Recipe tradition
- Vintage
- Course or meal
- Drink
- Cuisine
- American
- Source decade
- 1920s
- Browse category
- Drinks & Cocktails