I shall file this one under ‘risky craft business.’ It involves the use of a few power tools which can lead to some nasty injuries if you’re not super careful so please please be careful if you’re going to attempt these.
If you want to make them with the kids, I suggest preparing the plastic eggs while the kids are busy doing something else so there’s no chance of any little people getting hurt.
I’m only talking a drill and hot glue gun but that equals holes and burns and in my book, classes it as a little bit on the dangerous side.
You’re probably thinking this sounds totally not worth the effort and risk of ending up in emergency but it’s pretty cool in my humble opinion.
Get to the point Claire! The point is jelly Easter eggs. Healthy jelly Easter eggs. Last year, Ollie had just turned one at Easter and I wasn’t that keen on him gobbling down sugar-and-other-things-laden chocolate eggs so I made my own. He might get to eat the odd ‘real’ egg this year but I’m still keen to find alternatives – enter my jelly eggs.
I made these using home-squeezed orange juice and 100% apple juice with some berries added to make it pink. Then it’s just a case of adding gelatine to get it to set. Did you know you can make jelly out of any liquid? You probably did but it took me a while to realise this.
Basically this is more a guide than a recipe because as long as you use 125ml of liquid per 1 tsp of gelatine (I’m talking just the one you get at the supermarket), you can use whatever sort of juice your heart desires.
What’s your favourite juice? Have you ever made it into jelly? What will you be indulging in this Easter?
- 2 tsp gelatine
- 125ml freshly-squeeze orange juice
- 125ml fresh apple juice
- 2 tbsp frozen mixed berries
- Coconut oil to grease the inside of the plastic eggs
- 5 plastic easter eggs
- Hot glue gun
- Small syringe
- Take your syringe and find a drill bit that is just a bit wider than the end of the syringe - you need to make a hole big enough for the syringe to fit in.
- Drill a hole through the top end of each egg.
- Use the glue gun to fill in any other holes in the egg.
- In one saucepan, heat the orange juice until it starts to simmer then stir in the gelatine.
- When the gelatine has dissolved, turn off the heat.
- Place the apple juice in a separate saucepan and heat to a simmer, stirring through the mixed frozen berries until it comes to a simmer then add the gelatine.
- Keep stirring and when the gelatine has dissolved, turn off the heat.
- Use your finger to spread a layer of melted coconut oil around the inside of each plastic egg. This is to stop the jelly sticking to the shells.
- Place the eggs in egg cups, a recycled egg carton or aluminium foil case (just scrunch some and make a little stand).
- Using the syringe, suck up some of the orange jelly and pipe into three of the eggs. Each egg is about 50ml so if you want 5 layers you will need 2-3 syringes per layer.
- Repeat with the apple juice berry mixture in the remaining two eggs.
- Refrigerate the eggs for at least an hour.
- Repeat, alternating the different jellies for each layer.
- If the jelly in the pan firms, just heat gently until it turns back to liquid.
- Refrigerate between each layer and for at least 2 hours before attempting to remove the jelly eggs.
- To remove the jelly egg, run the egg under warm water to melt the coconut oil and help the jelly come out easily.
- Squeeze the sides of the egg together near the opening then gently pull the top away.
- You may need to run a knife around it to get it out of the bottom and break the seal.
- Keep eggs refrigerated until serving.
