DIY: Rainbow Jellies

The first thing that came to my mind when I thought RAINBOW jellies = Alot of work. Think - layers upon layers!

 And indeed it took a fair bit of effort to assemble; but, I must say the success rate is pretty high, and you really don't need much ingredients, you need time!

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Ingredients and Items needed:

1. Singlong brand Konnyaku Jelly (250g/packet) 

2. Coloring (only need 3 primary colors - red, blue & yellow - as those will be able to create the secondary colors like green & purple)

3. Measuring Cups

4. Measuring Spoons (for accuracy)

5. Chopped Fruits (optional)

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Run a Trial Test:

Before I did my actual Jellies for the Birthday celebration, I ran a trial test to make sure I got the right kind of jellies and the right kind of results. Hence, to prevent any ad-hoc crisis, I strongly encourage anyone trying this to do a trial before hand.

As seen here, I tried 3 different brands of jellies that easily available in local supermarkets, but Singlong was my preferred choice, both on cost and quality. 

Tortally was EXTREMELY soft and took a long time to harden, so this is not the best product for this project, however, I do think Tortally will taste yummy cos it is so wobbly and soft!

Many tutorials on youtube featured having a white jelly between the colors, but I just couldn't get the right mix of white jelly, hence I ditched the idea and thought, why not just go clear - it will be less a hassle, no need yoghurt, sour cream or coconut milk (all these were recommended ingredients to add to the jelly to create a white jelly).

As seen, when the jelly was first created, the layers do not blend in and looked very raw (middle picture), but once it all cooled down in the fridge, they blended in super well, and looked just as pretty as I wanted, except that I thought 4 colors sis not cut it as a "rainbow", and was determined to add 1 more color for the real thing.

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First, plan it on a paper:

Yes, I am more of a visual person, so I needed to draw it and plan the measurements well, besides, to make this rainbow, alot of maths is involved. Now I know why I studied math in school!

1. Decide the container you will be using to create your jelly, you can make jelly cups (like mine), or you could even make container style - I choose jelly cups that measure 150ml / cup. These were purchased from SKP.

2. How many colors do you want in your cup? 

I needed 5 layers of colors, from the bottom starting with PURPLE - CLEAR - BLUE - CLEAR - GREEN - CLEAR - YELLOW - CLEAR - RED. 

Since my cup is only 150ml, accuracy in the measurements are key. So every colored layer needs to be 20ml, every clear layer needs to be 10ml.

3. How many cups are you making?

I planned on 20 cups, so that means:

Each layer of color jelly: 20ml x 20 cups = 400ml 

Each layer of clear jelly needs to be 10ml x 20 cups = 200ml

4. Be prepare that you need to make a total of 9 layers (as indicated in point 2), which means mixing the jelly separately for 9 times and pouring them into the cups 9 times.

Think:

Boil Water >> Add Powder >> Add Colouring >> Pour in 20 cups >> Quickly place in fridge to cool AND REPEAT THIS x 9 times!

**Important Note: You can only start to prepare the next layer once you have placed the cups in the fridge. Preparing too early will only lead to wastage as the jelly cools really fast!

And NOPE, you cannot make all the clear jelly at once, cos you need to allow time for the previous colored layer to set before pouring in every next layer of clear jelly. The jelly mix would have all stiffen up once you wait. 

5. Measuring the exact amount of water and powder mix for each layer. 

Singlong Jelly comes in 250g pkt and it required 1250ml of water to dissolve the powder. 

If you work out the sums:

1250ml = 250g powder

100ml = 20g powder 

200ml = 40g powder

400ml = 80g powder

(Based on my measuring cups, 2 x 1/8 cups = 40g of powder)

*Important Note: You can use any other preferred utensils to measure, but for me, using the cups was highly accurate as compared to just a regular spoon as a spoon cant be leveled like a cup can, and you need to be fast when preparing each layer, so I will recommend you use a cup as well) 

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Actual Method:

Once you have worked out the steps, as above, all you need to do is simply follow the plan closely, this is all about physically doing it according to the plan.

1. Create the bottom layer = Purple; 

- prepare 400ml water in a pot, add in 80g of powder and stir till it boils, 

- add in coloring (blue plus red)

- once well mixed and no bubbles, use 10ml measuring spoons to scoop and transfer into the cups

- once all 20 cups are filled, refrigerate

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2. Create the next layer = Clear; 

- prepare 200ml water in a pot, add in 40g of powder and stir till it boils

- once well mixed and no bubbles, use 10ml measuring spoons to scoop and transfer into the cups

- once all 20 cups are filled, refrigerate

*Note: You can add in the fruits at any point you like.  

3. Repeat Step 1 and 2 until you are done with the top layer (red).

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So as you can see from picture below, there are fails too (most likely for the clear layer since this only contains 200ml of liquid). 

If you are too slow, they harden up really fast and you cannot transfer it anymore.

Hence after my experience, I will encourage you to make 300ml of clear jelly instead, just so it will not solidify that quickly.

TADANG! The fruits of my labour!

Finally, I think 5 layers is minimum for it to look Rainbow enough!

Have fun and enjoy DIYing!