I am soooooo ready for winter to be over, how about you? Well, what better way to welcome the warmer weather and spring season than with a bright, fresh treat? I had to reach deep into my creative side (extremely deep as there’s not much there right now) to come up with the idea and basic recipe of these Bloomin’ Gelatin Pops.
I say ‘pops’ but the stick is pretty much decoration since the Jell-O shapes will just fall off when you pick them up…thanks, gravity… Anyway, I have to admit, despite my troubled efforts, they came out pretty cute 🙂 They’re tasty too but be prepared to send your sweet tooth into overdrive.
So the journey began at my local Smart & Final. I hadn’t been there since they remodeled and became a Smart & Final ‘Extra!’ store. Wow, this place changed so much! It was huge and everything was pretty well-stocked. Thanks the the expanded produce area, I was even able to get some other grocery shopping done. Okay, enough of getting sidetracked. I will now return to the regularly scheduled program.
I circled the store a million times, to my daughter’s dismay and utter boredom. I just could not figure out what to make for a fun spring treat. Cupcakes? A candy basket? No, no, too standard. Then it hit me – warmer weather means Jell-O! I scooted to the baking aisle (again) and decided to make something with as many colors as possible. I actually had to return again later because, though Ivisualized white separating layer, I had no idea how to make them. So, I had to compare a few recipes and then return to get some unflavored gelatin and sweet condensed milk (yep, those are the secret ingredients no one talks about).
Rainbow Jell-O /Jello / Gelatin Spring Treat Recipe & Craft
Making the rainbow gelatin was pretty easy, just very time-consuming. Including mixing, chilling, and layering of each color, it took a good 3 hours. It helped to have all the colored and ‘white’ gelatin separated beforehand. Oh, measuring cups and the handy dandy water cooker were my friends during the tedious process. The recipe can be confusing so I’ll list it at the end of the post for your reading enjoyment.
Now onto the crafty ‘pop’ part. Smart & Final didn’t really have any craft items per say so we made due with what was available. Using a green crepe paper roll, my daughter helped me engineer a decent (awesome, actually) pair of leaves. Her origami-type folding and twisting put my sad prototypes to shame.
Use a strip about 4-1/2 inches long. Fold the ends toward the middle, overlapping them just a bit.Fold the corners of one side together and continue to fold bits until it creates the desired, rounded sides. Do the same on the opposite end.Add a full twist in the middle, making sure the both flat (unfolded) sides are up.Apply one drop of hot glue or other adhesive to the lower end of a small cake/lollipop stick. This should be about 1 inch from the bottom.Attach leaves.
Press a flower-shaped cookie cutter into the finished gelatin. Poke the ‘stem’ into the side and voila! To give the flower a bit more dimension, I cut a mini marshmallow in half and, since it was sticky already, just pressed it in the center of the cut-out. I found all the above items at Smart & Final (see disclosure below). ‘Like’ their Facebook pageforweekly deals & coupons and check their Community Pagefor more recipes and ideas. Happy spring!
Rainbow Jello Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 boxes Jell-O in grape, berry blue, lime, lemon, orange, and cherry/strawberry/strawberry-banana (3-oz. package of each color or half of a 6-oz. package)
- 5 pkt Unflavored Gelatin
- 1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 8 cups Boiling Water
- 1/4 cup Cold Water
Instructions
- In six separate bowls, pour one package of colored Jell-O and 1/2 packet of unflavored gelatin.
- Add 1 cup of hot water to your first color/flavor and mix until powder dissolves.
- Cool colored Jell-O to room temperature then pour 1 cup of liquid into greased (w/ cooking spray) 9in x13in pan. NOTE: Start mixing the next color while the previous one is chilling, giving it enough time to cool to room temperature.
- Chill on top shelf for 15 minutes until softly set. Do not chill until firm or the next layer will not stick well.
- Start milk mixture: Combine sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of hot water in a bowl. Mix.
- In another bowl, combine 2 packets of unflavored gelatin and 1/4 cup of COLD water. Let sit for 2 minutes until crystals expand.
- Add 1 cup of hot water to unflavored gelatin mix until dissolved. Stir into milk mix.
- After first colored layer is set, remove from refrigerator. Carefully pour 3/4 cup of milk mixture along side of pan, then lightly shake to spread evenly. Chill 15 minutes.
- Repeat steps 2-4 with second color.
- Repeat step 8 with milk mixture.
- Continue to layer color, then milk mixture. Finish with your last color.
- Chill until solid.
- Cut into squares or use cookies cutters to make shapes.
I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study forCollective Bias® and Smart & Final #cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.
Desserts
TerriAnn
TerriAnn van Gosliga is the main writer at . Born & raised in the SF Bay Area but loves to travel. She's been married to her best friend for 20 years, used to homeschool her 19-year-old daughter before she started a public high school/college program, and has an accident-prone lab mix dog.
