Making Jelly Cake

Someone shared a wonderfully looking recipe on Facebook recently and I immediately decided that this was something I would like to try. When my niece showed up for a visit, I realized that it was also a brilliant opportunity to introduce her to the use of gelatine in something other than jelly. The 'cake' would have to be made over two days, but we jumped right in and my assistant could hardly be topped in the enthusiasm department. Let me walk you through the process step by step.

This is what the original post, shared by Amke Fourie, with its accompanying photo looked like on Facebook:
"Jelly Cake 5 colour jellies made with only half the water. Leave to set. Cube all jellies and place into a silicone ring. Sprinkle 24g of gelatine over 250ml of water and leave for 1min. Meanwhile place 300ml of condensed milk, 300ml of heavy cream and 1t of vanilla in a blender. Stir in 250ml of hot water to gelatine. Stir until dissolved the add to blender. Gently pour creamy mix over cubed jelly. Place into fridge to set completely."

On day one, we only made four color jellies. Here are the steps for those of you who have not made jelly yet:
Empty the contents of the packet in a heat resistant bowl. Add a cup of boiling water and stir until all the sugar and gelatine is dissolved. Add a cup of cold water. Pour into a square container to cut into square blocks once set. Leave in the fridge until set.

Measure 45 g gelatine.

Measure a cup (250 ml) of boiling water in a measuring jug. Add the gelatine and stir until fully dissolved.

I strayed from the recipe when it came to the rest of the ingredients. The recipe calls for 300 ml full cream. I had a container of 250 ml and wasn't prepared to open a second for the extra 50 ml. I therefore reduced the cream to 250 ml and this is what I added to a mixing bowl.

The recipe also called for 300 ml condensed milk. I was happy to add a full tin of 385 g, not bothering to measure what that worked out to in ml.

I then added a teaspoonful of vanilla essence (5 ml).

Everything was whisked together in a bowl.

We next cut the jellies into squares and started adding them to a mold treated with non-stock spray.

We then stirred the dissoved gelatine mixture into the cream/condensed milk mixture and whisked it together. This was then slowly poured over the jelly squares to that the mixture would run into and under the squares. The mold was then placed in the fridge to set overnight.

Once the 'cake' is set, remove it from the mold.

I was very impressed with how this experiment came out!

The pudding proved to be very delicious and light, leaving no sign of the rich creaminess that went into the ingredients. When I make this again, I will beat the cream first and fold it in. This should assist in getting a fluffier texture. This is quite solid. I also discovered that it would be a simple matter to swap the cream out for ideal milk, especially the lighter kind. This will make it a much better alternative for those counting calories. Another discovery I made was that this is not at all too sweet. This means that if you do not have gelatine in the house, you would be able to use a packet of jelly instead. This will make it sweeter, but I believe it will still be acceptable to the average palette.

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Turning your Adult Coloring Page into a Blinged Top Fold Card

I show you yet another cute idea for turning your adult coloring pages into pretty cards in today's blog. This time I add a surprise element to the inside of the card as well. This one has all the elements that little girls will love. It has bling, buttons and other cute factors.

I tore this page from one of my adult coloring books. It was colored with Derwent Coloursoft Pencils.

I folded the page in half over a ruler so as to ensure a neat and straight fold line.

I then found a coordinating paper to fit inside the card.

If needed, crop this paper to the same size as the colored page. This paper was also folded double over a ruler.

I now used my Derwent Coloursoft Pencils to draw and color detail on the inside of the card. I started with Mid Green. Do not color solidly. Leave space to come in with two more shades of green.

I added Yellow Green to the grass.

I finished the grass in Lincoln Green.

I now found 6 similar buttons and one coordinating, but slightly different to form a worm in the grass. I stuck these down with Tombow glue.

I drew some flower stems and leaves in Dark Green.

The centers of the flowers were colored in Orange.

The petals of the flowers were done in Deep Red.

Once I had finished the first three flowers I decided to add a fourth.

I then used Petrel Grey to add antennae and feet to the worm.

I went back to the Dark Green and drew a border along the edge of the card.

I found a piece of off-cut red cardboard and drew a small mouth on it. This was cut out with a pair of scissors.

The mouth was stuck in place on the worm's head. The buttonholes would serve as eyes.

I places double-sided tape on the back of the inside of the card.

The inside of the card was inserted into the colored page and stuck in place with the double-sided tape. The intention here is a play on the words 'worming your way' into someone's life/heart as an expression of affection.

It was time to contemplate the outside of the card to decide how to decorate it.

I decided to add some flower sequins to the flower patterns on the page. I stuck these embellishments down with Tombow glue.

Here is a close-up of the flower sequins.

I then added some flower bling to the other flowers on the design.

Here is a close-up of the second row of flowers added.

I decided to add a row of tiny buttons to the dots in the design. This would tie in very nicely with the inside of the card.

I sat back and studied the card carefully. I liked it, but decided that I would like to add something to the 'tears' as well.

These bright pink bling dots would attract the necessary attention and create a nice focal feature in sharp contrast to the paler embellishments.

I was finally satisfied with the card. Now to find the right person and occasion to present it to.

For more crafty ideas and great products, visit APrettyTalent.com.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
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Turning your Adult Coloring Pages into beautiful Sliding Gift Boxes

I love giving special handmade gifts for Christmas and this Christmas I intend to put these special gifts in handmade boxes and bags as well. I have been showing you how to turn your coloring pages into cute gift bags and boxes, but you can also use any decorative paper to achieve similar results. I will once again use one of my colored pages in today's project and turn it into a decorative sliding box.

I broke away from my normal palette when I colored this page in Derwent's Metallic pencils. You can use any coloring page from the wide selection of adult coloring books available on the market these days.

As these pencils are watercolor pencils and can be used wet or dry, I decided that I would paint the background with water once colored. The pictures were not painted. I used a Pentel Aquash Brush for this purpose, absolutely loving the water reservoir in the handle.

I turned my page over and marked 3 cm off on the sides. I found the center of the page and measured 1,5 cm to each side of the center. This meant that my box would measure 10,5 cm in width and 21 cm in length. The height would be 3 cm.

The next step was to find a coordinating piece of paper/cardboard. This was cropped to measure 16,5 cm x 27 cm. I used a cutting mat, craft knife and metal ruler to ensure precision cutting.

I measured 3 cm all around the cropped page.

The corners were marked 1 cm down and 0,5 cm in, so as to trim the flaps.

I then cropped the corners on the flaps and cut them loose so they could fold over. Then I proceeded to fold along the fold lines. I prefer using a ruler when folding as this makes it easier to achieve neat and straight fold lines.

I put double-sided tape on the flaps in the corners.

I then set my compass to radius 1,5 cm.

I found the center of one of the shorter sides of the paper.

Centering the compass on the center mark, I described a semi-circle.

I cut the semi-circle out with a pair of scissors. This would make a thumb hold that would make it easy to slide the box in and out.

All that was left to do to the inside of the box was to fold the sides in and to secure them in place with the double-sided tape already in place.

Turning my attention back to the colored page, I folded this paper over a ruler along the fold lines as well.

I put double-sided tape along one side of the paper.

The page was then folded over and secured in place with the double-sided tape.

I slid the inside into the outside of the box. I do not decorate the box further until I have settled on a recipient, but I will share some ideas with you that I will simply lay on the box. Once the recipient and occasion is settled, I will secure my final choice for decorations with Tombow glue.

You can use any of a great selection of embellishments to decorate the boxes in this series. Here I used two rubber hearts.

Another idea is to add some felt flowers.

How about combining some fabric embellishments with a spot of bling?

Button and wire embellishments open new avenues.

Perhaps you want to be more linear in the layout?

You might even choose to simply tie a pretty ribbon around the box. The possibilities are endless.

For more crafty ideas and great products, visit APrettyTalent.com.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.