Cat in the Hat Jell-o Snack

The title of this treat is deceiving. There is no Jell-O in the recipe, but it rhymed. (You can use Jell-O though, keep reading!) Dr. Seuss would have been so proud of my title. In honor of his Birthday we celebrated his writings all week long. I love Horton Hears a Who, Yertle the Turtle, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Cat in the Hat. Yertle the Turtle is probably my favorite story. I'd like you all to know that reading Seuss if something I am good at! My husband laughs at how "into" the story I can get. His writing style suits my reading style well. What Dr. Seuss book do you love? I made this cute treat to go along with the theme.

I am mildly freaked out by Jell-O and it's slew of artificial colors and flavors. They make me nervous. That being said, I wanted to try my hand at making Jell-O from fruit juice. I loved how it turned out! If you aren’t creeped out by a box of Jell-O then use that, by all means. The color is less bright with the fruit juice and the flavor less intense. Honestly, that bright red boxed Jell-o would be beautiful for this! I think you would need 3 small boxes of Jell-O to make the same amount as I did.

Now, this takes a while to make. You have to let the layers set before you can add the next, so plan on making this in advance.

Cat in the Hat Jell-o Snacks
Printable Recipe

100% fruit juice - I used a red Juicy Juice

5 packages Knox Gelatine (1 box has 4 packages in it)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Water

10 Clear plastic cups

In a medium bowl add ¼ cup of cold fruit juice. Sprinkle 1 package of Knox Gelatine over the cold juice and let it sit for at least 1 minute. While the gelatin is sitting, bring 1 ½ cups of fruit juice to a boil. Whisk the hot juice into the cold juice and gelatin in the bowl. Whisk until the gelatin is dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then pour or spoon it into 10 cups. This filled my cups up about ¾ of an inch. Place all of the cups on a cookie sheet or in a baking pan and transfer them to the fridge. Make sure the pan is level in the fridge so you don't get slanted lines. Let them chill until set, about 30 minutes.

For the next layer, in a medium bowl add ¼ cup of cold water. Sprinkle 1 package of Knox Gelatine over the cold water and let it sit for at least 1 minute. While the gelatin is sitting, bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil. Whisk the hot water into the cold water and gelatin in the bowl. Add half a can of sweetened condensed milk. Whisk until the gelatin is dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool for 10 to 20 minutes. If you pour the steaming liquid on top of your set layer, it will start to dissolve the set layer. Pour or spoon the room temperature milk mixture into 10 cups. Mine filled the cups up about ¾ of an inch. You want all of the lines to be the same width. Any extras I had I just poured into a cup which I let the kids eat when I was done. Place all of the cups on a cookie sheet or in a baking pan and transfer them to the fridge. Make sure the pan is level in the fridge so you don't get slanted lines. Let them chill until set, about 30 minutes.

Repeat the juice layer, repeat the milk layer with the second half of the sweetened condensed milk, and then finish with a final juice layer. Chilling the layers in between and not putting the next layer on too soon is important to make the lines nice and clean. If you put a hot juice layer on top of the chilled milk layer the juice will get cloudy.

See, it will take a while, so plan ahead!

If you are using a box of Jell-o I would just make it according to the package directions and replace the juice layer with it, still allowing it to cool and such in between.I cut a circle slightly bigger than the top of the cup out of red paper for the brim of the hat, then used a little glue stick action to stick it to the bottom of the cup.

Happy Birthday Mr. Theodor Seuss Geisel (the man fondly known as Dr. Seuss)!