Parsha Dessert: Tetzaveh

I am kind of tired of just doing cakes for the parsha (hence the pizza last week). Here is a parsha dessert idea that could have come from the Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn.

For Parshat Tetzaveh, I made a Choshen HaMishpat. It isn’t so clear what the colors are supposed to be, but I did my best.  I wish I had found this page first! I would have done the colors differently. It would also have been better to have made the background a mix of red, blue, gold, and white (instead of beige with gold flecks). Oh, well. Next time.

Here is how I made it: prepare kosher gelatin or ko-jel with apple juice (or grape juice, or any fruit juice that is the color you want). Ideally, the juice itself is the right color, but I just used apple juice as the base and added food coloring as needed. I poured a thin layer of the apple juice jello into a square Pyrex dish, and then poured the remaining mixture into small kiddush shot glasses in which I had dropped a little food coloring. The hot mixture immediately mixes with the food coloring in the cup, making a color. You can also help it along by stirring with a toothpick. To get the gold, I used Wilton gold sprinkles. To get an opaque color, I added white food coloring.

I had a bit of trouble getting the jelled shot glass mixtures out of the shot glasses. This is the tricky part. You need to flip them out and place them on the jelled base.

If I have time, I will also make thumbprint cookies with the kids using different jams and place them together to make a cookie Choshen.

Update: If you shine a flashlight under the jello Choshen, you can make one of the “stones” light up!

Also, I made cookies with the kids. Just rolled out cookie dough, cut out 1″ circles, and let the kids stick jelly beans in the center and then put them together to make cookie Choshen.

The cookies taste good, and the jelly beans give each cookie a unique flavor (popcorn, watermelon . . . etc.)

In retrospect, it would have been even better to make stained glass cookies (or here and here is Martha Stewart on the topic, and wait, here are more links; and if you are crazy enough to make your own candy center, go here), i.e. make holes in the center of the cookies and add crushed hard candies.

Update two:

I made the stained glass cookies with my kids with the leftover cookie dough.

Close up:

And this:

Previous Parsha Projects:

Parshat Terumah Menorah Pizza

Parshat Yitro (Luchot cake)

Shabbat Shira (cake showing Krias Yam Suf)

Parshat Bo (cake showing Rosh Chodesh and last three makot)

Tags: Parshat Tetzaveh