Broken Glass Jello Cake with Milk: No-Bake Recipe

Step-by-step recipe

1. The cake is easy to make, though you have a long wait while the jelly sets. For the base I used ordinary 2.5% whole milk from the store. For the colored “shards” of broken glass, you can buy a few ready-made jelly mixes, also sold in stores. Or, more interestingly, you can set fruit juices with added gelatin and sugar.
   
2. Making the multicolored “shards”
3. Ready-made jelly mixes usually make perfectly tasty colorful desserts, but very soft ones, which makes them tricky to cut into cubes. So, and this matters, dissolve them in water with extra gelatin to make the finished jelly firmer. Usually it's worth adding 10-12 g of gelatin per packet of mix. So, get out 3-4 deep bowls for dissolving the powder. Pour one packet of jelly mix into each bowl and add extra gelatin.
   
4. Buy yellow (lemon), green (kiwi), red (raspberry or cherry) and so on. The broken glass cake should be colorful. If you like, use orange, cherry or lemon juice and green tea: natural ingredients. Dissolve the mix in warm or hot water, in the amount given on the packet; the instructions are very clear. When all the powder has dissolved, strain the liquid and pour it into a wide flat-bottomed bowl or baking dish. The liquid should be 1.5-2 cm deep. Put all the dishes in the fridge until completely set. The jelly should be firm and not spread when pressed with a finger. For the best set, leave the jelly in the cold for 5-6 hours.
   
5. The milk base for the dessert
6. As I said, I skipped the sour cream for this cake. Pour ordinary store-bought milk into a pot and bring to a boil. Add sugar and vanilla to taste. You can also add other flavorings, like “rum” or “lemon”. Once the milk has cooled a little, mix it with the gelatin.
   
7. For 0.5 l of milk, 15-20 g of gelatin is enough. Soak the gelatin in lukewarm water ahead of time and let it swell. While the milk is hot, stir in the swollen gelatin. The mixture will quickly become smooth. Boiled milk often forms a skin and foam, so it's best to strain it. Milk with gelatin sets very well, so as soon as it has cooled to room temperature, assemble the cake right away.
   
8. How to assemble the broken glass cake
9. Get out a few glass bowls or dishes with sloping sides. Take the colored jellies out of the fridge and cut them with the tip of a knife into 1.5-2 cm squares, right down to the bottom of the dish. Then transfer all the jelly with a spatula to a large bowl and mix gently.
   
10. Fill each bowl or dish with colored jelly cubes. Try to keep the cubes from sticking up above the rim. If needed, press them down a little with your palms. Be sure the milk mixture has cooled to room temperature by now.
    
11. Carefully pour the milk mixture into each mold over the jelly cubes, right to the brim. If some colored jelly sticks out above the surface, that's fine. Put the molds in the fridge right away until fully set. And that's it; all that's left is to serve.
    
12. How to serve the broken glass cake
13. The jello cake comes out quite firm, so you can carefully cut it with a knife. Get a large flat plate ready for serving. Briefly dip the mold in warm water so the jelly touching the sides softens a little. Then just flip the mold, and the cake will drop out onto the plate.
    
14. Before serving, you can cut the jello cake into pieces. Decorate it with mint leaves or fresh berries. The dessert is colorful, and in cross-section it looks like stained glass. If you do decide to use sour cream, get one that's not too rich and not noticeably sour. And if the colored jellies turn out too soft, you can reheat them, add more gelatin and let them set again.