Square Bento Birthday Jelly Cake for My Friend's Sick Aunt

Few months ago, my friend ordered a small jelly cake for her sick aunt. She's actually supposed to order the cake earlier in March but they weren't able to go to Baguio City where her aunt lives.

Jelly cake is basically agar and gelatin but what makes it different and interesting are the designs you put inside it. The most common is flowers. We use special needles to inject and create flower designs. You can think of jelly cake as fancy jelly.

My friend was initially requesting a round shape bento jelly cake but I didn't have a mold available for it. I tried to order the materials needed for a round bento cake hoping it would arrive on time, however, the materials were delivered late due to a strong typhoon. We have no choice but to go for the square bento.

The square bento is approximately 4x4 inches with a transparent acrylic case. Compared to the round bento cake, the square shape is more spacious for a customized greeting. But a round one would look more like a cake.

She told me that her aunt's favorite color is red, thus the main color of the floral design.

I did my best to create the design and colors she had requested and I'm glad her aunts in Baguio City loved the cake.

Knowing that a customer loves and appreciates your product really gives me a sense of fulfillment. All the efforts were worth it. 🥰

I'm really glad they liked it despite the messy arrangement of the letters. The jelly letters were too small and I struggled so much arranging it.

_{What's good when its inside a container is that you can make the cake stand.}

Here is how it looks like with the box.

The box is much bigger than the cake's acryclic container and I was worried the cake would get shaken while being transported to Baguio City, a city on the mountainous province of Benguet. To make sure the container stays in place, I customized small rectangle fillers out of a thick paper from a biscuit packaging.

Also, the presentation will always look good because the container will remain at the center of the box.

_{Jelly cakes need to be chilled to avoid the gelatin from melting. It also tastes better when the jelly is cold.}

Her aunt had a terminal illness, cancer in the lungs, stomach, and colon. I knew that cancer cells love sugar, but there are also other kinds of sugar that are safe for cancer patients like stevia. So instead of the regular sugar, I used stevia as alternative.

Unfortunately, her aunt passed away few weeks after they went to visit her. I didn't know how long was her aunt suffering from the illness. I'll assume it's more than five months because my friend told me about her way back February. All I know is that she's very strong to bear three types of cancer that long. I can't imagine the pain she'd been through with this sickness.

Moving back to the cake, the square acrylic container is the most difficult to use because you have to take it out from the container and flip it then put it back so the side with the design would be facing upward. The jelly cake is very fragile which is why putting it back into the container should be done with much precision and careful handling, else, the cake might have cracks or get sliced when it hits the sharp edges of the container.

I'm grateful and honored to have been trusted by my friend to make a cake for her aunt. Jelly cakes are not as popular as the regular cakes made of flour and eggs, that's why I appreciate it a lot when someone decides to order.

I'm also happy that the cake made it to Baguio City. The cake was transported to an estimated distance of 107 km. It was far but I didn't worry so much of the gelatin possibly melting because Baguio City's weather is cool.

I wish more of my cakes would reach farther places next time.

Thanks for reading! 💚