Being that we have no kids, the most exciting thing about Halloween is usually trick-or-treaters.  But, there are no trick-or-treaters at our house; all the kids do trunk-or-treat (ask if you need an explanation for this sad tradition).

Last year, and this year, we’ve gone to a friends’ house in a big neighborhood with lots of kids. They have a get together while all the kids are out getting their load of candy, and the adults eat good soup and drink homebrew.

We decided to bring this fun treat this evening: http://jelly-shot-test-kitchen.blogspot.com/2010/10/candy-corn-jello-non-alcoholic.html

First, you prepare the condensed sweetened milk, which starts with the gelatin. We learned lots about gelatin today! Like, if you put it over low heat, it slowly dissolves without any interferences or stirring…

You add the s.c. milk, and it turns into this.

We found these cake pop molds at the kitchen store. They looked perfect for the candy corn shape.

A lot of dealing with gelatin is a waiitng game. So you let this layer set, and you start the orange jello part.

Here we learned a very important lesson. You add this on top of the white layer and it doesn’t disturb the white. However, if you add this and let it sit so the heat affects the white layer and then add more orange, and adding more will affect the white layer. So don’t add orange, let it sit for a minute, and then add more. Just add the orange layer once.

And you add that to the mold and wait for another 40 minutes….

To make the bottom of the candy corn, you add food coloring to the s.c. milk mixture.

Here we learned another important lesson. When we finished the first batch and removed them from the molds, the bottom layer wasn’t overly attached to the others (meaning, it sometimes fell off…easily reattached, don’t worry!). However, we decided for the second batch we’d make sure the yellow mixture was hotter so that it could bond to the orange layer, and it worked much better (no falling off layers…)

And then you wait… and after figuring out how to get them out of the mold, you have….

A freaking cute little jello candy corn!

We followed the recipe, and they are non-alcoholic, however we fully intend that next time we make them we’ll add orange liquor. We also have plans for this mold (besides cake pops!), such as Christmas Trees and red, white, and blue rockets for the Fourth of July!

It was a ton of fun. I highly recommend playing with food you’ve never worked with just to see what happens!