Good morning! I'm pretty sure you guys have eaten some desserts made of gelatin in the past. But did you know, gelatin isn't only poured on molders? We can actually make elegant cakes out of it—the Jelly Cake!
Jelly Cake is a cake made of agar for it's base/canvas and uses gelatin solution to inject designs through a special tool. I consider jelly cake as the highest and most elegant form of gelatin art. As someone who's been into this food art for 2 years, I'd say not everyone knows about this dessert. But when one encounters it for the time, I always get reactions of amazement.
Jelly cakes are quite popular in Latin America and also in some parts of Asia like Malaysia and Singapore. It's also kind of known here in the Philippines but only really few make this cake, moreso in my province. Right now, I guess we're only just two.
So for this post and an entry for the challenge, "ASEAN Artistry", I'm going to show you a little bit of how I make this elegant cake!
I began my jelly cake business by attending a workshop because I believe that if you want to make a good and quality food art, you have to learn and have guidance from an expert. There I learned the easy way of preparing the ingredients, decorating techniques, and the importance of using premium agar and gelatin as it is crucial for delivering a quality product.
First step is to make the agar canvas and pour into a cake mold. There are also food grade acrylic greeting molds which can be used to add stylized greetings in the cake. For this cake, I used a happy birthday greeting. Let it set and wait for it to cool down to room temperature before putting in the fridge for at least half day.
When the canvas have set, it's time to prepare the gelatin and milk solution. This is what we inject in the agar canvas to create floral designs or other designs you wish to make. We divide the solution into cups and add food colors. (This photo is from a different cake I made so the colors are different from the cake on this post.)
And this is how the tools we use to inject look. These are attached to a syringe. Each tool is specific for a flower design or you can also choose to experiment and create a new design by combining different tools to make a unique design that you can call your own.
Now we go to the fun part of making jelly cake—decorating!
Here are some clips of me decorating a cake!
And this is how the back part looks after injecting the designs. You're probably confused of how it looks. This is the tricky part of decorating jelly cake. You make the design upside down, which means, you can't see how it would really turn out until you unmold it. You can compare it to writing or spelling a word backwards. Lol. However, it can become easier when you use a clear/transparent mold or a special cake mold with a window at the bottom.
The design is also irreversible once you have injected it. You can only improve it from there as removing it would destroy the agar. It is also important to decorate the cake in a cool room because it will affect the consistency of gelatin and milk solution. Gelatin is heat-sensitive and it becomes difficult to inject if the solution becomes too runny.
And to complete and seal the cake, I pour a gelatin and milk solution and have it set for another half day on the fridge/chiller or it also depends on how thick the solution you pour. The more amount you poured, the longer it would take to set.
When the gelatin is already firm, it's time to unmold! Prepare a plate or cake board where you are going to unmold the cake. This part always frustrates me because I find it difficult to center the cake in the plate/cake board. Lol!
Jelly cake is pretty sturdy, contrary to what people think just because it's agar and gelatin. As per my experience, it can survive a bumpy road, just refrain exposing it to heat and sharp things/edges.
I'm still no expert and creating a nice design for jelly cake is often a hit or miss. But comparing it to the first cake I've designed, I could say that I have already improved somehow. It really just takes practice to improve in your craft! It is also very important to visualize the design you want to create and choose colors that complement together.
The usual feedback I get from my customers is their hesitation of slicing the cake because it's too beautiful to just slice and eat it. I understand because I got the same feeling when I had my first jelly cake!
Jelly cake is truly a form of gelatin art which I strongly believe should be known by more people. It's not as sweet as the regular cake covered in icing but it's surely a healthier alternative because agar and gelatin are packed with nutrients that is beneficial for our body. It's also cold, light, and refreshing. Just the right treat on a warm weather like for us here in Southeast Asia!
Have you already tasted a jelly cake?
Thanks for reading! 💚