I’m mad. Insane. Cuckoo over cones. Somebody help me!

Day 29 of the 30-day Royal Selangor Jellyriffic Challenge and I’m still thinking up crazy things to do with the Royal Selangor Jelly Moulds. Case in point, this comical, conical “Angry Bird” clone cone that I made using pureed mango, food coloring, milk and agar-agar.

Angry Bird Challenge

Who hasn’t gotten addicted while playing Angry Birds on their i-Device? (By the way, if you use the Google Chrome browser, you can play it on your desktop computer by going to http://chrome.angrybirds.com which is how we play it at home) You can’t stop playing until you wipe the smile right off that snarky, snorty, egg-stealing king pig’s fat green face. Those darn pigs make their wood / glass / stone / metal houses such a challenge to beat

I thought that building an Angry Bird using jelly would not be as hard of a challenge. But I was wrong. And it kept me up till the wee hours of the night trying to get it right.

The first thing I needed was a top yellow layer that was angled a bit. Then a bottom white layer that would serve as the bird’s “belly”. The hardest part would be sticking on the orange beak.

For the yellow layer, I pureed one mango in our blender, then started boiling a half-cup of water in a saucepan. I added in the pureed mango, then sprinkled on 4 grams of agar-agar powder. I whisked it in to combine the powder.

The trick to getting an angled layer is to have the cone sit tilted in a container larger than the mugs we’ve been using all this while. I used two large measuring cups. I placed the point of the mould in one corner and leaned the cone over. Then I filled the cones with the mango-agar mixture until it reached the edge of the cone. I placed the cones into the fridge to set for a couple of hours.

Next, I heated up a cup of milk in the saucepan over medium heat, and brought that to a boil. I whisked in a couple of grams of agar-agar powder until it was all dissolved.

Since the mango agar jelly is angled, it might slide off of the bottom angled white layer. I’ve seen this before with other layered jellies like yesterday’s 3-Layer Tea Konnyaku jelly. To prevent this, I slid three toothpicks into the hardened mango layer before pouring on the milk layer.

In the meantime, Annie went to work cutting out the eyes and eyebrows for the birds using nori – dried seaweed. I think she did a great job with it! The hair and tail feathers were also cut from nori.

The hardest part turned out to be the beak. I used a half cup of milk and mixed in a lot of coloring to get it to the desired shade of orange. Then I added in another 4 grams of agar-agar powder and heated that up to boiling in the microwave. I poured the orange milk mixture into just the bottom portion of the cone and then put it in the freezer to harden.

Since the beak would be protruding from the face of the cone, I stuck another three toothpicks into the beak to help secure it to the body.

Then it was just a matter of carefully pushing the beak onto the body, and using a paring knife to carve out the mouth line in the beak. What do you think? Look okay to you?

About the only thing I regret is not using golden kiwi along with the pureed mango. Then I could call this a “Mang-wi Bird” (ba-dum-bump!). You know how I love puns!

Aloha, Nate

Last chance to vote for your favorite blogger in the Jellyriffic Challenge! But you have to purchase a Royal Selangor Jelly Mould in order to vote. Once you do, you will have a chance at winning an Olympus camera. You will also be helping to support the Breast Cancer Welfare Association of Malaysia in its efforts to help women cope with this deadly disease.