It's going to be awesome. Wednesday I'm making and freezing most of the cakes. Thursday I'm making the frosting. And Friday we're throwing 'em all together and decorating each and every one (and baking the cakes we can't freeze... such as my Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake - which is up to 18,000 pins on Pinterest. Can you believe it?!) It's going to be an extreme cake-a-thon, and I'm sure I'll reach new levels of insanity. But as long as there's some goodies from the late 90's playing in the background, I'm sure we'll all survive.
Back to the limeade.
If you live near a Sonic, then you've probably felt the gravitational pull between 2-4pm called Happy Hour. It's when the drinks are half off, and the peak of the summer heat hits you full swing.... the perfect time to grab something refreshing (and loaded with pebble ice). Things are pretty strict as far as our budget goes, but with any change you find in your couch, under the seats in the car, and the quarter you randomly found outside on the sidewalk... the drinks are more-than-affordable.
But why go out and buy it, when it's so darn easy to make it at home? (and when you can have more of it with a big 'ol batch of it in your fridge?) Exactly.
There are plenty of copy-cat versions of this recipe out there right now. But this one, I believe, is perfectly true to the flavor combination of the coveted Cherry Limeade I never stop craving from Sonic...
However, I've made it ten times better.
Why? I use freshly squeezed limes and fresh cherries instead of whatever syrup and maraschino cherry-mixture they have goin' on at the drive-through. Better ingredients = better overall taste. I'm just sayin'.
Ingredients:
Juice squeezed from 3 limes (strain out any little seeds)
1 C pitted fresh cherries, stems removed as well
1.25 liter of sprite (or any other lemon-lime soda)
1 C simple syrup*
Directions:
1. *Prepare simple syrup (first): In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar with 1 c water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Place in freezer while preparing the rest of this recipe.
2. Pit and remove stems from your cherries (if you haven't already). Place in a blender with 1/2 of Sprite bottle. Mix until cherries are finely pureed.
3. With a fine-mesh strainer, strain cherries from mixture (if you don't want cherry chunks - skip this step if you don't mind the cherry chunks) and catch juice in a small pitcher.
4. Mix in lime juice and the rest of your Sprite bottle.
5. Add in simple syrup according to taste. We like it sugary, so we added the whole cup. But you can probably get by with just 1/2 cup or so.
6. Refridgerate for an hour, and serve with a slice of lime and pebble ice if so desired.
Recipe inspired by: Sonic's Cherry Limeade
Linking up here.
Doesn't that look pretty AND refreshing!! :-)
ReplyDeleteThis almost makes me miss all those summers that I worked at Sonic, almost. I do still love cherry limeades though and I love how you are using real cherries here. That probably tastes 10x better than the cherry syrup they use at sonic. I'd love it if you shared this over at my link party. http://acraftycook.blogspot.com/2012/08/1-month-of-fun-august-link-party.html
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool that you make it from REAL fruit! Looks delicious! Found you via Live Laugh Linky. :)
ReplyDeleteCherry drinks rock my world! Must try this out :)
ReplyDeleteI would love to invite you to post over at my link party on The Purple Pumpkin Blog! Hope to see you there :)
When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn we used to get Cherry Lime Rickeys. I miss them! I have tried the Sonic ones and they are far from what I remember. I will have to try this and see if it replicates the drinks of my youth.
ReplyDelete