What's Sweet and Wobbly?

JELLY

Yes, the traditional party food typically associated with children. A fun and easy to make dessert! Why fun? Because as any child would tell you… it’s bright, sweet and wobbles when you poke it! Even the name jelly has a fun sound to it!

So I decided to make jelly as it’s an important type of food that generally comes up on a party food menu and also features in children’s literature such as in ‘Milly-Molly-Mandy Gives a Party’.

I bought a jelly mould and 2 sachets of jelly crystals from my local supermarket which came to the grand total of £1.60, so a very cheap party delicacy to make. The packets I bought were sugar free and had no artificial colours or flavours so are slightly better for kids and their teeth!

The ingredients and preparation

I followed the instructions on the back of the packet which involved adding the crystals to half a pint of boiling water, stirring them until they dissolve, then adding half a pint of cold water and pouring the mixture into the jelly mould. I then let it set in the fridge for 6-8 hours.

Now removing it from the jelly mould was a challenge! I thought I was going to end up with mashed up mess of wobbly red stuff but I managed to save it! After looking up advice on the internet of how to get your jelly safely out of the mould I discovered these tips helped: Poke a knife down the edges of the jelly mould to ease it out and you can also try placing it in a bowl of hot water for a few seconds before attempting to empty the contents on to a plate. In the end my jelly made it out of the mould only a bit disfigured! I decorated it with bananas, cream and cherries to make it more appetising. I also discovered that it probably wasn’t best to use a black plate as it doesn’t show off the bright red colour that the jelly is. Oh well, I’m no Delia Smith, even if it is only jelly! But my Mum did tell me that it is notoriously hard to get a jelly out of its mould!

Here is my wibbly, wobbly strawberry jelly…

Served like this in a sundae dish or even just a bowl the jelly looks like a tasty, appealing desert to serve at a children’s party and I’m sure kids would love the messy, colourful, wobbly appearance anyway!

An example of how jelly is used in children’s literature as a typical party food is in the Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories (1928). I loved these books as a little girl and can remember reading them all the time before I went to bed. There was a map of Milly-Molly-Mandy’s village in the front sleeve of my edition which I always used to look at and imagine her and her friends going on their adventures!

In the story, ‘Milly-Molly-Mandy Gives a Party,’ Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan decide to host a party; however they do not have enough money to buy the refreshments. So they start their own business, “Millicent Margaret Amanda & Susan & Co.,” (81) where they sell “bunches of flowers,” (81) “clean brass,” (81) and “run errands” for a very cheap price. As a didactic narrative this story teaches children the value of money and how to earn it yourself. Even if it is only running little jobs it still enforces ideologies of business and commerce. The story also teaches children, in particular girls, the skills of being a hostess. The girls simple attempt at hosting a party involve them having “clean hands and paper cups and aprons,” (88) and then welcoming their guests with a “marigold,” (88) for each gentlemen’s buttonhole and a “pansy,” (88) for each lady. This shows that the text promotes basic manners and cleanliness. Then there is the main feature of the party which the girls have been saving up for, the refreshments: “raspberry-drops and aniseed-balls on saucers trimmed with little flowers; and late blackberries on leaf plates; and sherbert drinks, which Billy Blunt prepared” (89). This shows the girls sweet yet childish attempt at party food, they haven’t made any amazing food you would get at a grown-up party but they have tried their best with what they can do at their young age and with the little money they have. This presents how hostess skills and cookery are being promoted towards girls through the text as Milly and Susan are the ones that organise and prepare the party; whereas their male friend Billy just deals with the drinks and the music which could been seen as the less domestic, feminine jobs. Finally, the ultimate dish that Milly and Susan make is the jelly, which like mine comes from a packet! However, it does not go very well and has “to be eaten rather like a soup, as it wouldn’t stand up properly” (89). This comic result portrays the child-like element to the party but suggests that as they are children it doesn’t matter as at least they have tried and all the adults humour them by saying they “enjoyed the jelly so much” (89). In relevance to my own jelly-making this scene shows how hard it is to make jelly even though it seems simple enough to make that even a child could do it! Overall, the significance of the organising of the party and the making of the food in the story shows how the didactic narrative provides lessons for children and in particular enforces gender roles as Milly and Susan inhabit the domestic sphere of the female as hostesses.

Lankester, Brisley, Joyce. Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories. London: Puffin, 2011.