Celebrate with Sparkling Jello

Happy 2013 EVERYONE!!! I hope you all had fun celebrating and ringing in the New Year!

We had a low key hang out with friends, which is always the best when kids are involved! 

I wanted to make something special for both the kids and adults to enjoy, so I experimented by making Sparkling Jello! 

I used a bunch of different ingredients and made many batches, some with a Jello box and some without! I have blogged on Homemade Jello before and most of you know that I don't like to make the box Jello because of the artificial dyes. It's SIMPLE to substitute the box Jello mix with Gelatine. I'll tell you how to make it both ways!

First of all, I taste tested ginger ale, sparkling water, and sparkling juice to see which one had the most carbonation. You want a highly carbonated drink to make this! The more carbonation the better because some is lost in the process of making it! I tried making it with sparkling juice and in the process of making it most of the carbonation is lost. Ginger ale was ok, some of the carbonation came through in the Jello. I did like the taste it gave the Jello so I would say use Ginger ale for its flavor! The sparkling water was, hands down, the best thing to use to make sure the carbonation comes through in your jello! It give a fun ZING to this old time favorite snack!

What you need~ With Jello Box:

• 6oz. box of any flavor Jello
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• 2 cups of plain or flavored sparkling water (COLD)

When making Jello with a box, the flavor is already there so you simply want to use regular sparkling water. I used cranberry lime sparkling seltzer water, picture below, but the flavor doesn't come through.

Simply boil your 1 1/2 cups of water. Pull away from heat and stir in your Jello box contents. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Slowly add your 2 cups of COLD sparkling water. Carefully pour into containers that you will serve the jello in. You want to be careful because it will foam up due to the carbonation. Refrigerate for a few hours till firm.

 What you need~ With Gelatine:

• 1 1/2 cups of juice 
• 2 packages of Knox Gelatine (there are 4 packs in one box)
• 2 cups of plain or flavored sparkling water or ginger ale (COLD)

Now, when you are making the homemade jello, without a box, you have to decide what color you want to make it. I wanted ours to look like champagne so I used white grape juice. The juice will also be most of the flavor of the jello, so pick one that your family likes! 

Simply boil 1 cup of juice. In the other half cup of juice, stir in your 2 gelatine packs. Then stir in your boiling juice. Once mixed well, refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Next, slowly stir in your 2 cups of COLD sparkling water or ginger ale. You have to make your choice here.... Ginger ale will give it better flavor but sparkling water will give it more of a ZING! 

I chose sparkling water because I don't need it to be as sweet!

If you were planning on making these for adults, you can substitute a little bit of the 2 cups of cold liquid for alcohol and make them into Sparkling Jello shots!!! 

 Pour into glasses and refrigerate till firm!

It was such a beautiful snowy day here, I had to take a picture outside!

 For our New Years gathering, I used plastic champagne flutes to pour the jello in! This was a HIT all around! The kids loved eating jello out of them!

CHEERS!