Castella - Pops!: icy treats for everyone

POPS! introduces a whole new ice popone thats fashionable as well as fun. The first-ever compendium of this all-time favorite treat includes more than 100 irresistible recipes and variations for pops with unique tastes and flavor combinations such as Sour Plum, Sweet Martini, Thai Iced Tea, and Blueberry Cheesecakecool treats todays grown-up kids will be proud to serve at their birthday gatherings, barbecues, and cocktail parties.

Kid-pleasers like PB & Sesame Raspberry, Banana Split, and Rocky Road Pudding Pops are just as abundant. And recipes for global ices from Mexico, Italy, India, and the Philippines are part of the mix, too. Everyone is invited to this ice pop party! More than 50 full-color photographs capture the appeal of these frozen delightsperfect treats for a hot summer afternoon, ideal late-afternoon pick-me-ups, elegant novelties at a cocktail party, or fancy finishes to a special meal.

Ice pop artist Krystina Castella not only shares the recipes, she teaches you how to make pops that will delight all of your senses, offering tips on molds, mix-ins, and perfect presentation, plus instructions for creating stripes, suspended ingredients, hand-dipped coatings, and other fancy pop techniques. And for those whose creative interests stretch beyond the kitchen and into the DIY realm, there are innovative techniques for making ice molds from household objects (including paper cups and baking molds) and even small toys.

Ice pops are the new fun food on the block, and Pops! is the first (and last) word on these icy indulgences.

Copyright 2008 by Krystina Castella
Photography copyright 2008 by Emily Brooke Sandor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Number: 2007941761

eBook ISBN: 978-1-59474-764-9
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59474-467-9

A Quirk Packaging Book
Designed by Niloo Tehranchi
Do-It Yourself: Pop Mold Illustrations by Stislow Design + Illustration

Quirk Books
215 Church Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
quirkbooks.com

v3.1

FOR MY PHENOMENAL HUSBAND, BRIAN BOYL:

Thanks for chillin with me.

Thank you to everyone on Team Pops!

Countless thank yous to Sarah Scheffel, project editor and Team Pops! editorial director, whose imagination and insight have made crafting Pops! all play.

Team Pops! Los Angeles

Emily Brooke Sandor: the photographer whose commitment and hard work from concept to final book gave form to these cool images.

Liesl Maggiore: the food stylist whose good humor kept us from dripping.

Glendale Department of Water and Power: who saved the pops during a blackout by donating a backup generator so the photo shoot could go on.

Team Pops! New York: Quirk Packaging

Lynne Yeamans: the design director who infused her playful vision into these pages.

Liana Krissoff: the recipe editor who tackled every last detail.

Niloo Tehranchi: the graphic designer who brought her impeccable style to every page.

Sharyn Rosart: the book packager who agreed to pull off Pops! lickety-split.

Team Pops! Philadelphia: Quirk Books

Mindy Brown: the associate publisher whose availability as a sounding board brought a clear understanding and vision to this book.

Dave Borgenicht: the publisher who agreed to back Project Pops! and set us off on an adventure of a lifetime.

Melissa Wagner: the acquisitions editor, for her creative direction and for acquiring Pops! within forty-five minutes of receiving the proposal.

Bryn Ashburn: the art director, for her discerning eye.

And to my parents, Marion and Michael Castella, for their invaluable support.

When I was eight years old, my mom attended a Tupperware party and surprised me by bringing home a special treat: ice pop molds. At first I found it a little strange that grown-ups had fun at parties that celebrated plastic products. But when we made strawberry and orange ice pops using orange juice and fresh strawberries Id grown in our garden it hit me: It wasnt about the plastic but the possibilities the voids in the molds held. I also realized I wouldnt have to eagerly wait until 2:15 every day for my favorite melody coming from the ice cream truck, then beg my parents for fifty cents to buy my favorite icy treat. I was being encouraged to make and eat pops all the time. The ice cream man could live in our freezer!

I poured everything I could think of into the moldsjuice, ice cream, pudding, yogurt, candy, fruit, nutsand through freezing transformed them. To me everything tasted better frozen on a stickespecially in New York City in summertime. When we learned about the science of freezing in third grade, I jumped up and gave a speech about all Id learned from making ice pops. Throughout my teens I made them as a healthy alternative to ice cream. In college I studied industrial design, a major that allowed me to explore plastics and mold-making techniques to feed my pops obsession.

Ice pops even played a central role in my romantic life. I was eating a pop when the phone rang one day. It was Brian, a guy Id met at a party the night before, calling to ask me out on our first date. I was so excited I quickly wrapped my pop up in foil and parked it in the freezer so we could talk. Throughout our five years of dating, every time I moved I packed the same ice pop in an ice cooler and refroze it at my new place, as a quirky good luck token for our relationship. Several years ago, about the time of our tenth wedding anniversary, I decided it was time to say goodbye to that freezer-burnt pop and hello to a whole new world of specialty pops.

With the numerous innovative plastic and silicone molds on the market, I discovered I could make ice pops that offer unusual forms as well as unique flavor combinations. I could finally make ice pops that were glistening, tasty, beautiful objects of art. And as an industrial designer equipped with mold-making skills, I could make custom molds in almost any shape I dreamed ofjust like toys.

After the success of my cookbook Crazy about Cupcakes (crazyaboutcupcakes.com), I decided to write about the next fun, fashionable food: ice pops, of course. Partly because I had a lifetime of pop making under my belt, but also because these childhood favorites are a perfect reminder for us all to approach life with playfulness, wonder, and a sense of humor, pops seemed like the ideal follow-up. Just like cupcakes, pops are fun and make people smile.

Ice pops also fit into a larger cultural trend. Kidults who spend their weekends hanging out at cupcake bakeries, shopping for collectible toys, and creating DIY crafts or tech projects will enjoy the creative opportunities that playing in the kitchen and making pops offers. They will be proud to serve these hand-crafted homemade treats at their formerly too-adult birthdays, barbecues, and cocktail parties. Moms and dads who store these delicious treats in the freezer for their kids will be treated like heroes. Kids and teens will find these recipes cool and easy to make for their friends. And the health conscious looking for completely fat-free after-workout frozen delights will find many pops that meet their healthy requirements and satisfy their palates, too. To expand your taste for icy treats, I also have included recipes for global ices from around the world.