If you’ve been paying close attention, then you probably already know where I derived the inspiration for these ghostly goodies. Remember these cloud parfaits? As soon as I saw them I knew I wanted to put my own spin on them and try to make Halloween ghosts.
The problem was the photo, like too many Pinterest finds, was a dead end (looks like it was originally pinned from a password protected site). The description on the pin said something along the lines of “Jell-O + whipped cream” and from what I could see that sounded about right. But that’s all I had to go on.
Which meant that after making some orange jello and leaving it to set in a few half-filled jars and cups, I had to come up with my own ridiculous way of injecting the whipped cream. The first thing I did was enlist my husband’s help. He came up with the crazy (or was it brilliant?) idea of duct taping a crinkly straw to the whipped cream nozzle. I should have guessed that’s where his mind would go. What is with guys and duct tape?
From there we basically shook, inserted, and squeezed. This was our first attempt. As you can see, we didn’t get the straw deep enough and the whipped cream erupted out the top. Lesson #1: go to nearly the bottom of the cup with your straw.
Our next attempt worked out much better. You can see we achieved a nice layer of Jell-O above the ghost so it looks like he’s floating around in the Jell-O.
Once the ghost body was in place, it was time for the mouth and eyes. I took a few very small pieces of Tootsie Roll, made little balls, and pressed them against the glass with a wooden skewer.
I’ll be honest, it wasn’t super easy but with a little perseverance I got all three ghosts’ faces to appear and I was pretty happy with the effect. My favorite was the guy on the right. To me it looks like he’s got a wiggly little arm coming out of his body near the top.
I could have (and probably should have) stopped there. But I really wanted all the ghosts to look like they were floating so I made more Jell-O and poured it on top when it was about half way set. It really finished off the ghost in the jar nicely but his two friends disintegrated quite a bit. The look was actually kinda creepy-cool, but not exactly what I was shooting for. Lesson #2: For a seamless effect you must get the whip cream fully submerged in the first round of Jell-O. If you don’t, let the second round of Jell-O fully set up and then fill up your cups with it. You’ll just have to deal with the fact that it’s not perfectly smooth.
I also could have just shown you the photo of the one that turned out really well but I wanted you to see that even in my world things sometimes go array. It’s cool, my kids loved the Jell-O just the same and if I’d been making these for a party or something I would have had my technique down cold by the third one. Hope you’ll try it – let me know if you do!
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