It's got to be fun for everybody. For the birthday child and the young guests, and also for the parents. And the adults will have some work to do with the planning, organisation and buying. It's best if you can get your child – the 'young host' therefore – involved in the planning and preparation for the special day. It's fun for them, arouses their anticipation of the party, and also serves as an educational measure at the same time: For then children see for the first time just how much work goes into a party like this.

Pleasure with gelatine:

Tip:
Try and also get your child involved in the baking too – it's great fun. How about making a fresh and fruity jelly flan. The benefit: Children get tremendous fun out of decorating the cake with lot of fruit gum figures and little chocolate marshmallows.

The flan is loved by old and young alike, making it just the right thing for a children's party.

Jelly Flan

You will need:

• 500 g ripe, juicy fruit (redcurrants, strawberries, raspberries or peaches)
• 8 leaves of white gelatine
• 125 g sugar
• 2 packs vanilla sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 beaker of stiffly whipped cream
• 1 beaker yoghurt
• 100 g plain butter biscuits
• 75 g brittle
• 1 ready-made flan case

For the decoration:

• Whipped cream in an icing bag
• Small chocolate marshmallows
• Fruit gums in animal or fruit shapes

Preparation:

If necessary, wash the fruit and leave to dry; remove all stalks, leaves and stones. Puree the fruit using a mixer. If desired you can sieve the fruit pulp to remove the small pips. Soften the leaves of gelatine in cold water. Mix the fruit pulp with the sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon juice. Place 5 dessertspoons of the fruit pulp in a small pan and warm gently. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Squeeze the fluid out of the leaves of gelatine, then add the leaves to the fruit mixture. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the mixture until the gelatine has completely dissolved.

Add the gelatine-fruit mixture to the cold fruit puree and mix well with a whisk. Stir in the cream and the yoghurt. Break the biscuits into small pieces and gently mix into the fruit mixture together with the brittle.
Choose a bowl slightly smaller than the flan case, line it with transparent foil and then pour the fruit and cream mixture into the bowl. Place the bowl in the fridge until the mixture is solid. This usually takes 2 to 3 hours. You can prepare the mixture the day before if more convenient.

Lay the flan case on a flan board, take the bowl with the fruit mixture and gently turn it out over the flan case, carefully lift the bowl and peel the transparent foil from the fruit mixture. Place the little chocolate marshmallows around the flan and pipe whipped cream into the areas between marshmallows. Decorate with the wine gums.

Finished!