rainbow jello for chinese new year

Almost every year, I make rainbow jello for Chinese New Year. It's so pretty, and festive, and both kids and adults love it! It's a super versatile jello to make and you can make it with any colors you like - I've made it for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Christmas to name a few occasions. I've even made it in egg-shaped jello molds for Easter, or Hello Kitty shaped molds for my book!

For the colored layers, you just need to chose four different colors/flavors of Jello for the different colored layers. And the white layers are made of clear gelatin mixed with sweetened condensed milk for a creamy milky layer in between the fruity layers.

While the recipe itself is super easy, it does take a bit of time to make, because each layer takes at least 30 minutes in the fridge to set before adding the next layer. But it's a fun dessert to make, say on a rainy day, or on a weekend at home, or with your kids!

Plus its a light and not-too-sweet dessert for any meal. Enjoy! And Happy Chinese New Year!

christmas layer jello

We are well into January already, and I still haven't shown you all the desserts I made for Christmas! This is the last one, I promise!

So for Christmas Eve dinner this year, the only dessert that my mom requested I make was layered jello! Out of all the desserts that I make, she chose the simplest one! But whether it's Valentine's Day jello, St. Patrick's Day jello, or Easter jello, layered jello is always the perfect dessert. (You can even make Hello Kitty layer jello!). It's not too sweet, perfect as a light dessert, and loved by both kids and adults.

The fun thing about layer jello is that you can choose any color combination, and any amount of layers that you like. I typically make it seven layers (4 colored layers and 3 white layers), so this time I chose alternating layers of two green, two red, and three white. You could even use cookie cutters to cut them out for a fun presentation!

This jello is definitely addicting because it's easy to eat, it's light, and it's delicious. And it's super pretty as well! You can find the recipe in my new book, just look for the recipe on Hello Kitty rainbow finger jello!

hello kitty layer jello

If you've read my blog before, you'll probably already know that I have a thing for making rainbow jello. I make it for Valentine's Day, for Chinese New Years, I've even made a green and white version for St. Patrick's Day and an egg-shaped version for Easter! So while I was writing my new book (it comes out next week!!!), I wanted to include a Hello Kitty version, made in cute silicone molds!

You can find the recipe in my new book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book, but it's basically a finger jello made with different flavors of jello, clear gelatine, and a yummy creamy white layer in between the colored layers.

To get the beautiful layers, it does take quite some time (especially if you only have one silicone mold), but the results are striking!

You could do any flavor/color combination you like, and if you can't find the silicone molds you could always make it in a 9x13 pan and use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes.

To get the recipe and see brand new photos, you can order my book here!

easter egg rainbow jello

I made these rainbow jello Easter eggs for Melodie's class party this year, and they were definitely an improvement from the last time I made them two years ago! (Last trime I tried to make pastel colors, but they didn't turn out so great! I much prefer standard rainbow colors like with this seven-layer jello).

Last time I scored this egg-shaped jello mold for free with the purchase of three boxes of jello, and while I scoured my grocery store for the same deal this time, I could not even find any molds for sale at all! Bummer, this meant that I could only make six jello eggs at a time, and I needed to make enough for 18 kids!

By 4am, I was done. But I had only made 12 eggs, so I chose to make the rest of the jello in a 9x9 inch pan.

Next time I'll remember to start earlier! Either that, or order another couple of egg-shaped jello molds in advance!

They were worth it though; the teachers and kids (especially Melodie) loved them!

Happy Easter!

*** Update: You can now find the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!

easter egg layer jello

Last year for Easter I made these birds nest cupcakes.  And this year, when I saw this blog post at Just a Taste on how to make a jello egg inside of a real egg shell, I was enamored with the idea, and I wanted to make layered jello eggs for Easter!  I was already brainstorming in my head how I would do it, what I'd do with the leftover insides of the egg, what colors/flavors of jello I would use ... and then while I was at the grocery store later that week, I found this crazy gadget - it's specifically meant for making jello eggs!  Best of all, it was free with the purchase of 3 boxes of jello!  Score!

I practically skipped home with my new gadget, ready to make Easter jello.  I had signed up to make jello for my daughter's daycare Easter party anyway, so I would just use some of the mixture to make my layered jello eggs.  I decided that I wanted to make pastel layers in between the colors, instead of the white layers like I normally do.  So I made my usual layer jello recipe, but for the pastel layers, I used the colored jello and replaced 1/2 cup of the water with heavy cream.

The resulting pan jello for my daughter's daycare party turned out pretty, although it didn't exactly scream "Easter".  Also it wasn't very tall since I only did six layers (instead of the usual seven), plus some of the jello mixture was subtracted to be used in my experiment with the jello eggs.

As for the layered jello eggs, they did not turn out so pretty.  I must not have closed the two halves of the form all the way, because all of the eggs had an ugly seam all the way around the middle.  Plus because I was experimenting with the order of the colors, they all turned out looking rather odd.  But still cool because they're shaped like eggs!  Next time I'll try solid colors instead, or maybe I'll just stick to using the white layers of jello in between the colors.

Hope you have a Happy Easter!

lime green layer jello for st. patrick's day

There weren't very many things to sign up for on the sheet for the St. Patrick's Day party at Matthew's preschool this year.  A few slots for napkins or plates were still open, but I had been wanting to make cookies this year, and that section was already full!  In fact, only one food item was left ... lime jello.  So that's what I signed up for.

Last year the same thing happened with the Valentine's Day party, and I ended up making seven-layer rainbow jello.  I thought I could do the same thing again, except this time I would only have green and white layers.  So I used the same recipe as last time, except instead of four different flavors jello, I only used lime jello.

For the white layers, I didn't have any sweetened condensed milk on hand, so I ended up using a 12 oz. can of evaporated milk with 2/3 cup sugar whisked in.  I think it ended up tasting the same, however after the gelatin hardened the consistency wasn't as firm as it should have been, which didn't surprise me since evaporated milk is much more watery than sweetened condensed milk.

In the end, Matthew missed out on the party completely - he had a fever that morning, so he had to stay home from school that day.  Poor kid, he was so upset!  He kept saying, "But they're going to have a pinata!".  So I saved some jello just for him, and then I brought the rest to school.  Hope everyone at the party enjoyed it!

seven-layer rainbow jello

For Matthew's preschool parties, there is always a sign-up sheet for what goodies to bring.  But by the time I got to the sign-up sheet for the Valentine's Day party, the only things left open were "fruit" and "jello".  Not wanting to just bring fruit, I signed up for jello.

On the drive to work, I started to brainstorm of what I could make with jello.  Jello with sliced strawberries?  Jello with oranges?  What else could I put in it?  And then it hit me - I would make rainbow jello!  All kids love rainbows, and thinking about all the colorful layers in the jello immediately brought me back to my kid days.  I can't remember specifically what parties or who brought it, but I do remember always gravitating towards it - and eating lots of it.

I had initially envisioned cutting out the jello into heart shapes for Valentine's Day, but I ended up using a flower cutter since my heart cookie cutter was too big.  And even then I only did a few, as the jello was too tall for the cutter, so the shapes didn't come out nicely.  So I just sliced the rest into small squares.

I have to say, this jello is highly addictive.  The white layers are made with knox gelatin and sweetened condensed milk, which adds a nice creamy flavor to the overall jello.  And who can resist something so colorful and fun to eat?

*** Update: You can now find the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!