Who says jelly is just for kids? FINAP has long lusted after the whimsical creations of Bompas & Parr, but we’re also equally at home with a quick and easy homemade jelly from a packet. Jelly makes a great low-fat, low-calorie lunchbox treat if you make them up in little tupperware pots or jam jars. You can even add fruit (if you must). Who can resist that wobble?!

It was high time we got down with some gelatine, so using The Universal Jelly Principle we have created these fun little layered jellies. It’s surprisingly easy! Of course layered jelly takes longer as you need to set each stripe individually (takes up to 6 hours), you could just use one type if you want to keep it simple.

Makes 6 small jellies

Ingredients

• 1 x 500ml bottle of Cherry Coke*
• 250ml of cherry juice drink (we use this one from Waitrose)
• 7 ½ leaves of gelatine
• Happy Cherry sweets to decorate (optional)*

Method

1. Have 6 individual jelly moulds or glasses ready for your jellies.
2. Start by making the cherry -flavoured jelly. Cut 2 ½ leaves of gelatine into pieces and place into a glass bowl. Pour over just enough of the cherry juice to cover. Leave to soak for 5 minutes.
3. Put some hot water in a small pan and bring it up to a slow simmer. Then place the bowl of softened gelatine and cherry on top. Stir from time to time until the gelatine has dissolved. This should take about 5 minutes.
4. Add the rest of the cherry juice and stir well. Pass the mix through a sieve into a jug.
5. Gently pour in the cherry mix into the moulds until each is about 1/3 full.
6. Leave the jelly to set in the fridge (a couple of hours)
7. When set, repeat steps 2 – 4 using the cherry cola and the remainder of the gelatine.
8. The cola may fizz up with all the excitement. Pour the cola carefully into the moulds on top of the cherry jelly, use a spoon to skim off any escaped bubbles, and set in the fridge.
9. To turn out, place each jelly mould into a bowl of warm water to loosen the sides, then turn onto a plate.
10. Wibble-wobble!

*if you are cooking for a Coeliac please make sure the brand you use is gluten free, as some own brand colas contain barley malt and wheat is fairly common in pick ‘n’ mix sweets.