Gelatine Balloons Recipe »

Ingredients:
- Good quality balloons, Qualitex only available from party shops
- Copha
- Balloon cups and sticks
- Gelatine
- Water
- Powder or liquid colours

Method:
1. Mix 2 quantities of water to one quantity gelatine using boiling water or in a microwave until the mixture is clear.

2. Remove scum with a spoon.

3. Blend in colour being careful not to create too many air bubbles.
Bang bowl to remove air bubbles.

4. Blow up balloons to appropriate size and lightly coat with copha. Do not use too much as this will prevent the gelatine from sticking well and leave void patches.

5. Leave the gelatine mixture to cool to slightly below body temperature. Approx 32C is optimum.

6. Spin the balloons in a sideways swooping movement evenly and coat well. Once coated immediately hold upright at a right angle to dry until it is hard. This may take a good couple of hours or even overnight. It all depends on humidity.

7. Once dry, deflate the balloon with a pin prick or just by untwisting the balloon. It will leave the gelatine ball behind.

8. Pearl lustre dust has a wonderful effect mixed in with other colours.

9. Trim the uneven edges when dry and attach to the cake using gelatine nearly set or royal icing.

10. These balloons can be decorated using royal icing designs and basic royal icing principals.

Helens Sugar Art Tip...

Balloons can be done in a similar way for chocolate balloons using well tempered chocolate.