Why do I have the Hawaii Five-O theme song running through my head?  Maybe it is the chilly day.  When I thought of making piping gel I started dreaming of Hawaii and the Pipeline.  Since I can’t be there, I guess I will make some “pipe lines” of my own.   Piping gel is so easy to make- no need to run to the store.  You most likely have everything you need in your pantry.  And there is a lot more you can do with piping gel than just piping Happy Birthday on a cake, such as:

1.  You can color the piping gel blue for a water effect.

Isn't this cake from cakestuff.bpweb.net adorable? The water is made with piping gel.

2.  Stabilize whipped cream for use as icing or filling:  add 2 tbsp. to 1 cup liquid whipping cream.

3.  Stabilize meringue:  add 1 tbsp. per 3-4 egg whites.

4.  Use as a glue to attach edible decorations.

5.  Use as a glaze for tarts or other desserts:  2 parts gel to 1 part water.  You can heat mixture to make it easier to use.

This cake from cakecentral.com uses colored piping gel to fill in flower design.

6.  You can use the gel for a stained glass effect in your cake decorating.

7.  You can use it to transfer a design pattern to a cake.

8.  You can put drops of clear gel onto flowers for a dew-like effect.

9.  Heat and brush onto a cake.  Let dry and then frost.  This is called a crumb coating and helps to keep crumbs from making their way into frosting as you decorate a cake.

10.  You can give your decorations dimension or shine by placing a “stripe” of colored or clear piping gel on the side of your cake decorating bag.  Then place icing in bag and decorate as usual.  For example, you could do a stripe of red, a stripe of blue and then white frosting for the 4th of July.

11.  You can add 1/2 tsp. to 1 cup of icing to make it smoother for decorating and making delicate patterns and designs.

Piping Gel

2 envelopes or 2 tbsp. unflavored gelatin

2 tbsp. cold water

2 cups light corn syrup

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small pan and let set for 5 minutes.

Heat on medium/low until gelatin has dissolved.  Add syrup and heat through.  Cool and store in refrigerator.

To color add color paste or food coloring.  Food coloring will give it a more runny consistency than coloring paste.

To flavor use concentrated flavoring oils.

Now Go Have Some Jello Joy Today!

Raise your hand if you have ever been in a marshmallow eating contest?  Check out this marshmallow link for some authentic marshmallow fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0NC_fsV6cg

Do you have a marshmallow story, picture, or video to rival this?  Let us hear about it!

It’s no secret, marshmallows are fabulous.  When you think of Easter what store bought treat do you think of?  Peeps of course!  Now they have peeps for other holidays too, but they don’t count.   The marshmallow goodies in the shapes of chicks and bunnies are the only Peeps that I subscribe to.   They are a tradition in my family.  We have had Peeps in our Easter Baskets for as long as I can remember.  I will let you in on a little secret- they are better stale.  It’s true.  Stale marshmallows are the best.  When I was young, I would leave the marshmallow bag open so they could dry out.  I’m sure my Mom loved that when she needed marshmallows for something.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine did a cooking demo and she made marshmallows.  I wanted to try them but haven’t until now.  I tried my friend’s regular white marshmallow recipe and they were good, but I couldn’t leave it at just regular white vanilla marshmallows.  I had to take it a step further with flavored jello marshmallows.  There is a recipe for marshmallows in the older Joys of Jello cookbooks using flavored jello.  I thought the recipes were the same; they are not!  The first “trial” batch I made with a peach jello.  They turned out much better than I expected.  They were a pretty color and they tasted yummy.   The next day I was a bit too confidant and I made 3 more batches.  Since I thought the recipes were the same I just grabbed the first recipe book that I saw and made that recipe.  The result was 3 pans of goop.  I then realized that the recipes were not the same.  So the next time I used the first recipe I had tried and they were a success.

Ingredients:

1 package (3 oz.) jello, any flavor

2/3 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp. light corn syrup

Dissolve jello in boiling water.  Turn down the heat, add sugar and corn syrup and stir until sugar is dissolved.

After the mixture has cooled and slightly thickened, beat with a hand mixture on highest speed for about 5 min.

See how the mixture has turned to a lighter color?  It is getting fluffier and thicker.

Mix until it gets to the stage where it can hold soft peaks.

Now pour into a pan lined with wax paper and greased and coated with powder sugar.  Let chill in fridge overnight.

Then look what happens, they magically turn pink!  No not really, my pictures are taken from two different batches.

I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention!

Dump set marshmallow mixture out onto cutting board which has been heavily coated with powdered sugar.

Cut with scissors or a pizza cutter.

(I found it easier to cut them into strips with a pizza cutter and then cut them into squares with scissors)

Roll cut pieces in powdered sugar.

TaDa!  Yummy flavored marshmallows.

Pastel Marshmallows

1  3oz. package jello (any flavor)

2/3  cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp. light corn syrup

Powdered sugar

Dissolve jello in boiling water in a saucepan.  Turn down heat and stir in sugar, until dissolved- do not boil.  Blend in corn syrup.  Chill until slightly thickened. (I chill it by putting it in a sink filled with cold water, stirring often.)  Line an 8 inch square pan with wax paper, grease with butter.  (I prefer to spray with a non-stick spray and then coat with powdered sugar.)  When mixture has cooled and thickened, beat with an electric mixer on highest speed until mixture can hold soft peaks, about 5 min.  Pour into pan and let set in refrigerator overnight.

Then carefully dump mixture out onto a board that has been heavily coated with powdered sugar.  Peel off wax paper then cut with scissors or pizza cutter.  Roll all sides of cut pieces in powdered sugar.

Now go have some marshmallow JELLO JOY

I know, it is hard to resist the urge to over-do it with green food coloring on St. Patrick’s Day.  You probably put it in the milk, pancakes etc.  Here is a better way to use it:

Jello Key Lime Tarts

1 (3 oz) pkg. lime flavored jello

3/4 cup boiling water

1 tsp grated lime zest

1/2 cup fresh key lime juice, or lime juice

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup sour cream

4 drops green food coloring

Dissolve jello  in boiling water.  Cool jello to room temperature- about 35 minutes.  (You can speed this up by placing container in a larger container filled with ice water or in fridge; however, watch carefully so that jello does not become firm.  If it does, it will not incorporate into the other mixture and you will have Key Lime Pie with lumps of green jello.)

While jello is cooling, whisk together sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, food coloring and grated lime zest in a separate large bowl.

Whisk in sour cream and cooled jello.  Pour into small pre-cooked and cooled tart shells or one 9 inch pie crust.  Chill until firm.  (If you would like filling to be higher than tart shell, wait until it is set and then spoon or pipe into shells.)

Tart Shells

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter, softened

4 tbsp. sugar

2 cup flour

Blend cream cheese, butter and sugar.  Stir in flour just until blended.  Chill about 1 hour to make dough easier to handle.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Shape dough into 48 one-inch balls and press into mini muffin cups.  Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until very light brown on edges.  Remove from oven and let set in pan to finish cooking.  When cool, remove from pan.  This recipe makes a lot of tarts, but they are easy to make, and they disappear fast!

*Today’s post is based on two recipes from one of our favorite websites, http://allrecipes.com/ The recipes were both submitted by Glenda under the names of Key Lime Pie II and Cream Cheese Tart Shells.

Now Go Have Some Green Jello Joy!

The Real McCoy

The Irish love Guinness Beer.  In fact, it is the best selling alcoholic drink of all time in Ireland.  What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than with something truly Irish.

However, for those who do not imbibe, which includes Eunice and Jello Girl- after all super heroines must be in peak performance form at all times- we have developed an alcohol substitute you can indulge in.  Here goes:  Guinness Root Beer Jello.  Don’t laugh until you give it a try.  Ok, you can laugh, but try it anyway.

Our Version

You have to admit that it is unique.  The slightly green hue gives it an unmistakably St. Patrick’s Day appeal.  Guinness is known for it’s thick head (froth), but the froth on top of our jello will last much longer than Guinness Beer froth!  Be brave, give it a try.  Here is the recipe:

Guinness Root Beer Jello

2 cups favorite root beer, divided

1 small package lime jello

Boil one cup of the root beer.  Add lime jello and stir until dissolved.  Remove from heat and add 1 cup cold Root Beer.  Reserve some jello/root beer mixture in a mixing bowl for the froth and leave it at room temperature.  Pour the rest into a glass or serving dish and chill.

When the chilled Jello is slightly thickened (about 15 minutes) beat the reserved jello with an electric hand mixer until it is frothy, spoon on top of the thickened jello and chill until set.  Makes four 1/2 cup servings.

I know, it really does sound weird to combine lime jello with root beer, but the kids loved it and surprisingly it wasn’t too bad for the more discerning adult palate.  Aside from that, you have to admit that the jello froth on top is pretty cool.  I guess we could call it stabilized froth.

Now go have some Irish Jello Joy!

Why is it that we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the United States of America?  What is the ratio of Irish immigrants to immigrants from other lands?  I don’t really know, but I think it’s the pinching thing don’t you?  What other holiday do you get to go around pinching people?  

And the color green, don’t you just love it?  There is a different shade of green for each decade, such as Hunter Green during the 80′s; totally out now.  I use to have a Granny Smith Apple colored kitchen.  I loved it- so cheery.  I miss that kitchen.

Back to St. Patrick’s Day.  We have a few ideas to celebrate the season.  This blog is about our St. Patty’s Poke Cake.  I wish I could call them St. Patty’s Pinch Cakes, but I’m not sure how pinching a cake would work out, so I will stick with poke.  Jello Poke cakes use to be the rage.  Everyone was baking cakes, poking them and pouring jello over the top.  I haven’t seen anyone make one of them for awhile.

We are going to bring the Jello Poke Cake up to date in cupcake form.  You could use a cake mix, but we recommend homemade.  It is so much tastier.  We are using a Lemon-Honey Cupcake recipe from the March 2010 issue of Woman’s Day and changing it up just a bit.  If you like to bake cupcakes from scratch check out the cupcake feature article at http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food/Recipes/6-One-of-a-Kind-Cupcakes.html  Here is our spin:

Lemon-Lime Jello Poke Cakes

Cupcakes

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest

4 tbsp lemon juice

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1.  Heat oven to 350.  Line muffin cups with paper liners.

2.  Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

3.  Whisk sour cream, milk, lemon zest and juice in a medium-small bow.

4.  Beat butter, honey and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes.  Beat in eggs one at a time.

5.  With mixer on low speed, beat in half flour mixture, then the sour cream mixture.  Beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined.

6.  Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup.  Bake 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes and remove to cool completely.

7.  When cupcakes are cool, poke holes in cake with a wooden pick or meat fork.

Jello Glaze

Mix a 3 ounce package of lime jello with 1 cup boiling water.  Stir until sugar crystals are completely dissolved.  Carefully pour over each cupcake.

We suggest topping with lightly sweetened whipped cream to balance the sweetness of the cupcake.  See our post on stabilized whipped cream.  You can then sprinkle with jello crystals for a little extra color and flavor.

For some free cupcake wrapper templates, check out http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/10/22/make-your-own-cupcake-wrappers/

Now go have some Jello Joy!

Before the cream sits out too long, you must whip it.  When something’s going wrong, you must whip it.  Now whip it, into shape… it’s not too late to whip it, whip it good…

Ok, if the tune from Devo’s song is now running through your head, I am truly sorry.  I couldn’t help myself.  It really does say, before the cream sits out too long, you must whip it.  I didn’t make that part up, but our post today happens to be on just that:  whipped cream.

Have you ever topped a dessert with a dollup of whipped cream that eventually oozes down and forms an unappetizing puddle on the plate.  We (Jello Girl and Eunice) are here to your rescue with directions for stabilized whipped cream.  It will hold it’s form longer and better and it’s a perfect light frosting for a cake.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

1/2 tsp. unflavored gelatin

1 tbsp. cold water

1 cup whipping cream

3 tbsp. powdered sugar

1/2 to 1 tsp. vanilla

Sprinkle gelatin evenly over cold water in a microwavable dish.  (A one cup Pyrex measuring cup works well because it is deep enough that the mixture will not boil over.)  Let set for 2 minutes, or until gelatin has been absorbed and mixture is spongy.  Microwave mixture for 20 seconds.  Stir to make sure gelatin is dissolved and cool for about 3 minutes- more or less depending on temperature of kitchen.  While gelatin is cooling, beat cream until thick, but not to soft peak stage.  Add liquid gelatin all at once and beat.  (If gelatin has set up at all, it will not incorporate into cream and you will have gelatin chunks in whipped cream.  You may reheat gelatin mixture and cool again if this happens.)  Add powdered sugar and vanilla and continue to beat to desired consistency.

Now Go Have Some Jello Joy Today!