Jelly making: round one

And in the beginning there was jelly. Or perhaps not quite the beginning, first came cafes and cakes. But they've been done before - you can barely move for cupcakes round these parts. So I wanted to start something that meant I could indulge my passion for food and perhaps start a little hobby business along the way. I wanted something different, I just didn't know what yet.

Once the idea came to me, that was it. I was up at 1.30am on Saturday night, unable to sleep and desperate to make jelly. I would make jelly and ice cream - but not any old jelly and not your bog standard ice cream. This would be a sweet shop of different flavoured delights. Mix and match, try something different and enjoy great tasting jelly and ice cream - that was the idea

Back to 1.30am one Saturday morning though. I had four precious leaves of silver leaf gelatin and a fridge of odd ingredients. But it was all I needed. 

CLEMENTINE

A couple of juicy clementines resulted in a fruity, tasty jelly but it was a little tart. Lesson learnt, I will add sugar next time.

HORSERADISH

Yep, your eyes do not deceive you. The second flavour I experimented with was horseradish. Brave I know, but it actually tasted better than you might think. And it is step one in my quest to come up with some savoury flavours.

FRESH MINT

Some sprigs of mint and a touch of sugar didn't result in the intense jelly I was after. Next time I will need to somehow infuse the flavour from the mint. 

ELDERFLOWER

And finally, with a little help of the guys at Belvoir I made elderflower jelly. This one tasted the nicest and is certainly a flavour for summer 2011.