Jelly Sweets à la Slimming World

I dedicate my second ever post to those of you out there who are following the Slimming World plan.  I have been on plan since 5th January 2012 and while progress is slow I have managed to loose a total of  2st 41/2 pound so far I said it was slow, but as the old adage goes, better off than on! 

Having said that, I have achieved my first milestone which was my Club 10 target.  That means loosing 10 % of your starting weight.  My next mile stone is 3 stone, the halfway point of what I want to lose hopefully by the end of the year!

So ... it is going in the right direction after all, as my consultant says "some people take the express way and some a more scenic route" and while at first I thought this was really rather cheesy, I've gradually come to realise that this isn't a competition.   With everything else in my life I want it yesterday, or at the very least by 5.30pm ... so it gives me a chance to play with whatever it is before bedtime!  However, this time I've promised myself that I'm in for the long haul, it's not a race, I want it to work and I want it stay off.

Which leads me onto the main reason for this post - Jelly Sweets.  Part of my journey has involved me joining the Diet Momma facebook group. Which, I have to say is a not only a brilliant support network and massive inspiration but contains wonderful and creative recipe ideas.  One such recipe was for a Haribo  bear replacement, Slimming World friendly Jelly Sweets.  Well, nothing ventured nothing gained and I love both Haribo and jelly so off I went to have a play in the kitchen. 

Ingredients:

1 x sachet of jelly crystals

2 x sachets of gelatine powder

1/2 pint water

2-3 small silicone moulds
optional: 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Citric Acid

Method:

1.  Place 1/2 pint water in a small saucepan and put onto a gentle heat (on our Aga I put it onto the simmering plate)

2.  Add sachet of jelly crystals, I use Hartley's at 1.5 syns for 1 sachet (as pictured), and stir until dissolved.

3.  Add both sachets of gelatine powder and then gently stir until dissolved (don't worry if it goes instantly lumpy, just keep stirring and it should all dissolve)

4.  At this point add the citric acid if you like that sour edge. I love it, the more sour the better!

5.  Pour into jelly moulds and then put in fridge for at least 1 1/2 hours.

 And voila!

Jelly sweets! 

I'm starting to like these better than the shop bought ones and everyone I've forced them upon has really enjoyed them too.

The thing is with these the possibilities are endless, you can try different flavours, adding a tablespoon of yoghurt to make a different texture, even splitting the layers to have multi-coloured sweets.

It's a fab activity to try with the kids and you can even get experimental with the moulds you have around the house: egg cups, yogurt pots, cake moulds, ice-cube trays, shot glasses and on and on.  If you use anything non silicone based, i would recommend spraying the inside with FryLight first to make it easier to get out.

If you're interested, I got the butterfly, teddy and heart moulds from Home Bargains for 79p each.  PoundStretcher and B&M also do them from time to time and I found the other chocolate moulds in T.K.Maxx.  Now I'm always on the look out for fun moulds.  Enjoy and report back if you find any cool variations.  

Happy slimming!

P.S. I have tried (in vain) to make syn free versions of the above that would still remain edible.  I have tried sugar free squashes and also diet fizzy drinks but none taste as good as with the jelly crystals.  So feel free to try, but believe me, I wouldn't bother, so throw caution to the wind and use your 1 1/2 syns.   You deserve it (wink).

The joy of baking ... a giant flower power doughnut and ice-cream cupcakes!

Well .. here it is, my first blog post!  Wow, it felt good to say that.  I've been agonising over it for months and finally today ... with a little sun and help from my little sister my blog was born!  So what better way to start than by showcasing some of the cakes that I made this weekend.

My little sister, Giovanna, has just completed her degree (OK, not that little, but she is the youngest and therefore will remain so for me!) and asked if I could bake her a cake when she came home for the weekend.  Never to be outdone by a challenge I set about doing some "research"; if browsing YouTube can be classed as such anyway.  I always have trouble in deciding where to start, you see, I have sooo many gadgets to choose from, the Cricut Cake, various moulds not to forget my beloved KitchenAid mixer. 

If I could I would combine using them all! Recently however, I bought some Blossom SugarArt moulds and really wanted to use those on a bona-fide cake.  This is because I've been just making random flowers out of marzipan and fondant icing just for the fun of it and because I'm on a diet, forcing them on whoever crossed my path.  I don't care as long as I'm not the one eating them as I would have once-upon-a-time but that's another blog post.   Anyway, back to the cakes ... so I had one element, my blossom moulds. 

During my "research" I came across a super idea of making cupcakes in ice-cream cones! WOW! That's amazing (I am easily wowed by the way) I shouted across the lounge.  Archie, my deaf white border-collie (yet another story) was not very impressed as at my booming exclamation must have made the floorboards vibrate!  So, I started hatching a little plan ... what could I do to showcase these little gems.  Well, last year I made my little sis a giant cupcake so I couldn't do that again, wait, I'd bought a giant DOUGHNUT mould ages ago and never used it!  I have a tendency to buy things when I see them and store them away, because they'll come in handy at some point ... I love it when a plan starts to come together.  Right, I can make a huge doughnut, cover it in icing and then put some of the blossom flowers on it! Yay!  I was getting excited now.  

Back to the ice-cream cones, how could I make them more exciting.  Think, think ... ha!  Got it!  I can make them all different colours, like ice-cream flavours and put white chocolate chips in them, she loves white chocolate and they would be a further "surprise" element.  But what about the topping, we are all on diets and not too keen on the texture and flavour of buttercream icing.  American frosting was to be the answer, I love it.  It's like Fluff, soft and dreamy on the inside and form a slight crust which is perfect for keeping its shape.  Better still it's only sugar and egg whites and is a pure brilliant white shade in colour! Just like a '99'! If anyone is old enough to remember those. 

And there we have it, I set to work baking the cakes, colouring the batter, spooning it into the ice-cream cones ... oops we have a problem here! The cones are pointy!  They won't sit on the baking sheet to go into the Aga!  What to do ....  what else? Cut the bottoms off. Then what? Erm ... Tin foil the bottom and so all was not lost, with foil-bottomed cones in the oven they went.  A nervous 20 minute wait and success! Even better, the batter has slightly spilled out, colouring the outside of the cones like a melted ice-cream dribble!  I was so giddy at this point as they were looking fab! 

I set them out on a cupcake stand (bought for me by my other sister, Sara!) at which point my Dad came round to walk the dogs.  "Pe! (short for Giuseppe, don't ask!) put da ice-creams in the fridge or they will melt". Yes! They were that good!  "Dad don't worry, they are cakes".  Well ... if you could have seen the look .. just magic!  Needless to say, the cakes went down a storm and I had a lovely warm feeling which is what baking should be about!

If you like the idea of the ice-cream cupcakes and would like me to write a post on how to make them, leave me some feedback!