Marshmallow Jelly Cake

I've not baked a layered birthday cake for a long time.  The last I made was back in April, for my birthday (oops, not posted yet :P).  2 months ago, we celebrated DS2's 6th birthday.  Feeling lazy, I decided to just make him a jelly cake.  When it comes to jelly, my children will never say no.

This recipe was shared by Baking Mum back in 2006.  With no baking experience then, this recipe caught my attention immediately and I've made it on several occassions.  I've not made this in recent years but with a pack of marshmallow (intended for fondant making) that was sitting on the shelf for the longest time, a wise decision was made to clear it off.

If I were to make this for DD3, her choice of fruit will be strawberry.  For DS2, he loves pineapples so the answer is obvious.  With only raspberry and strawberry jello at home, I was praying really hard that my trip to the local supermarket wouldn't be a wasted trip.  Thankfully not many people appreciate pineapple flavour jello hahaha...

With my previous attempt on jelly cake, I didn't wait long enough for the filling to set and ended up with a messy looking cake.  So with this cake, I told myself to be patient and waited for 3 hours before pouring in the jello.  I've not been lucky with jelly cakes but I did better this time round.  Not too messy and only 1 pineapple floated up.  There's still room for improvement ;-)

Got the girls to help prepare the cake for their dearest brother.  They were busy rolling away the biscuits with my rolling pins.  DD3 tried all methods and finally decided that hitting the biscuit is the easiest.

Looking at the recipe, preparation of this cake is relatively easy.  Aunty A taught me to arrange the fruits on the fillings before chilling to prevent the fruits from floating into the jello layer.

Although I've made this a few times, I made a big blunder.  I didn't melt the marshmallow completely as it seem to take forever to melt!  I cooked it over the stove, stood there for almost 30 mins, stirring constantly to prevent burning.  But time is running out as I need to prepare dinner.  Seeing that 70% has melted, I turned off the fire and went on to prepare the cake.  Now that explains why the filling looks lumpy.  Maybe I'll cut the marshmallow smaller before I melt it?  Or melt it over double-boiler?

Since my kids love jelly, I doubled the recipe for the jelly layer and used up a pack of jello instead of 1/2.

Not the best looking cake but my kids are happy.  Definitely going to make this again.

Marshmallow Jelly Cake

Ingredients
Base
200g digestive biscuits
80g melted butter

Marshmallow filling
150g marshmallow
280ml  UHT/full cream milk
200ml dairy whipping cream
2 tsp gelatin + 20ml milk

Jello topping
1 packet of pineapple Jello
400 ml of water
4 tsp of gelatin

Method

• Crushed digestive biscuits and mix well with melted butter. Press into a 8” tin. Arrange some cut pineapples on the biscuit base.  Refrigerate for later use.
• Bloom gelatin with 20ml milk, let it stand for 5 -  10 mins.
• Put ingredients for marshmallow fillings (including gelatin/milk mixture) into a pot. Boil over small fire until marshmallow are melted.
• Cool marshmallow filling slightly and pour into the prepared baking tin with biscuit base.
• Arrange cut pineapples on top and chill in fridge for 3 hours until slightly harden.
• In the mean time, boil jello ingredients until dissolved.  Leave to cool slightly.
• Remove cake from fridge and pour the slightly cool or cool Jello on it. Return to fridge to chill.
• Cut into small pieces to serve.