The failures really have shaken my confidence but I'm glad to say we're back on track, with a proud standing cone of Chinese almond, raspberry and longan jelly.
It's a rather simple one and an old fashioned one.
In fact, my mother was just talking about eating this on Monday.
Being of the older generation, she has fond memories of this as a dessert served in the good old days....like she describes it, cold almond jelly with canned longan and a red layer topped with ice cubes.
Rather than make it from scratch (soaking the Chinese almonds or apricot kernels, as they are actually called) I took the easy way out and employed the good services of one of my favourite restaurants aka Elegant Inn at Menara Hap Seng.
We were there for a wonderful lip smacking meal (geoduck sashimi, salted egg yolk crab, goose liver fried rice and etc) hence I packed back their Chinese almond dessert, a must whenever we dine here.
This was set with gelatine and the bottom layer was the raspberry jelly studded with longans.
As I was trying to unmould the jelly, I ended up melting the sides that it had an attractive appearance with the trickling milk that reminds me a little of Christmas trifle.
It definitely does not look retro anymore. Hopefully mum will approve of this and that curse of mine has gone off forever.
Chinese Almond, Raspberry and Longan Jelly
150ml Chinese almond dessert
2 tablespoons raspberry jelly powder
4 tablespoons gelatine powder
100ml water
canned longans
Bloom 2 tablespoons gelatine powder in a little water. Combine with almond dessert in a small pot. Heat just below boiling point. Pour into mould. Leave to chill. Scrape the surface of jelly to allow next layer to set together. Place longans on top arranged in a circle. Melt jelly powder with half of the water that has been boiled. Mix and add remaining water. Cover the longans. Chill for 5 hours. Unmould by dipping it in hot air.
Reminder: Support the cause by buying a Royal Selangor Nick Munro pewter mould as all proceeds go to breast cancer welfare association. Also, do remember to submit your suggestions to booliciouskl@gmail.com or leave a comment for the mould to win the Olympus camera VG-110. For more pictures, see the Flickr set for all the whole Royal Selangor Jellyriffic challenge. To view, all the jellies, see this link to the Royal Selangor website.