Heart shaped ice cubes tray - gags by Cal Exotics - review by ~LaUr3n~

USE:

The Heart Shaped Ice Cubes Tray was given to me as a gift this holiday season. It's a cute little ice cube tray that make heart shaped ice cubes. They are great for parties, especially bachelorette or wedding parties, and are also good for date like situations for anniversaries or Valentine's day. The tray doesn't make a whole lot, but for a small party its a cute way to start off the event with a little drink decoration. You can always buy multiple trays to make more ice at once, and their use doesn't have to be limited to making ice. There are plenty of other uses for them too.

MATERIAL/DESIGN:

The Heart tray is made of a pink, somewhat opaque plastic. It's very sturdy. It doesn't flex much, so it can be hard to pop the hearts out at times. This is especially true of the smallest hearts. The tray is much smaller than a regular ice cube tray. It is 7 1/8" long, 4" wide, and 3/4" high.

It can make 12 heart ice cubes at once.

x2 2" wide
x4 1 3/8" wide
x6 7/8" wide

The try has no outside lip to the heart shape or the border of the entire tray. This means that water can spill over and distort the designs if you are not careful.



EXPERIENCE:

Because of the lack of edges to the tray, be careful when you pour water (or other liquids) into it. If you don't fill it up all the way, the backs of the hearts will end up flat, but if you fill them a little past the top, they will sort of "bubble" and have a rounded side. This is how I prefer to do them, but you can't fill too much because then the water will spill over creating weird shaped hearts.

If you are using just water, it will take about 1 1/2 hours for the ice to fully freeze (it did in my ice box, anyways).

To get them out, a few methods need to be used. The largest hearts pop out using the regular twist method I was taught growing up. The middle sizes take a little bit of banging. The smallest ones are the hardest. I consistently need to run cool water over them (any warmer will crack them) to lubricate them out. I also have to bang on the back to get them out. They take great shape and are easily recognizable without any issue, even the smallest ones.



They don't crack much when you put them in a beverage, which I was surprised by. I expected them to break into pieces, but they don't. The large ones take quite a while to melt too! All but the littlest will look like hearts as they melt. The littlest ones will looks like circles eventually.

I like that this tray makes 12 ice cubes. This is enough for about 4 drinks and by the time you finish them, a new tray should be ready. That's if you make the first batch strong enough (alcoholic of course), that is!

The tray can also be used with juice for little Popsicle coolers in the summer (or if you're like me, anytime of year). It's also great for jello shots and can even be used as a chocolate mold.

To clean, it's easy enough to just use soap and water in a sink, especially if you are just doing this for water ice cubes. I don't typically wash my ice trays after that. I have not yet put them in a dishwasher because there is no indication that they are dishwasher safe, and it is so easy to wash, that a space in my dishwasher would be a waste, honestly.