Halloween Punch Recipe With a Floating Brain

1. Spray brain ice mold with cooking spray. Fill with water, leaving about 1 inch of room at the top. Place in an 8 x 8 baking dish or deep dish pie plate to stabilize the mold. Freeze until firm.
2. When ready to serve the Halloween punch, dissolve the Jello in boiling water. Stir 2-3 minutes until Jello is completely dissolved.
3. Stir in orange juice concentrate. This will help cool down the Jello. Add the ginger ale, pineapple juice and sugar. Mix well. Transfer the Halloween punch to a large punch bowl. Unmold the brain ice cube (invert onto a plate), and place in the center of the Halloween punch.

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You may wonder, do people still put out punch bowls at parties? Absolutely! It can be one of the easiest ways to serve a crowd, and that kind of delicious convenience never goes out of style. In an article for Imbibe Magazine, Washington, D.C bartender Dan Searing shares some tips to keep your punch fresh throughout the party:

"Deep freeze. If your tap water tastes funky, use spring water when making your ice blocks and boil it first, which will yield clearer ice. Fill molds to 1-inch below the rim and freeze at least overnight (preferably longer). If time is of the essence, use metal rather than plastic and don’t cover the container. To release the ice, soak the bottom of the container in warm water for about one minute until it can slide around.

Chill out. To slow dilution, punch ingredients should be chilled for several hours before serving. You can either combine them ahead of time or put the bottles (such as syrups, seltzer, etc.) in the fridge. When ready to serve, pour the punch ingredients over the ice block in the bowl and stir a bit to ensure the mixture becomes well-chilled.

Make extra. If it will be a long evening, consider adding the punch in parts over the course of the gathering and replacing the ice when it becomes too small. If the punch becomes too diluted from melted ice, adding fresh punch and ice will revive the bowl.

Don’t burst the bubbles. Sparkling punches begin to lose their fizz after about 2 hours, so don’t add the sparkling ingredients until right before serving.

If you won’t run through all the punch in that time, just serve half of it topped with half the bubbly stuff.  Refrigerate the remaining punch and sparkling ingredients separately (make sure the fizzy liquids are tightly sealed in their bottles) until ready to serve.

Don’t forget the garnishes. When serving a crowd, it helps to prepare your garnishes ahead of time, cover and refrigerate. When you’re ready to serve the punch, have the bowl of garnishes ready so they can easily be added to each glass."