It has taken me nearly a week to get this post done mostly because I wasn’t sure the best way to approach it. I learned a lot of things with this technique. So… I will tell you the best way to make it and at the end I will tell you the missteps I took on this first attempt. That way you don’t have to make them yourself!

I saw this really cute penguin and polar bears party that really inspired me. You can see it here at Giggles Galore. That’s also the place we got the idea for the cute snow globe cake. Giggles Galore had individual cups of jello and each had a penguin fishing on it. I decided it would be really fun to up-size the whole thing and make a big jello “lake” for some penguin fishing!

Ingredients:
2 – 1 ounce boxes of Knox gelatin (8 – 1/4 oz packets)
2 liter Lemon Lime Soda
Blue Food coloring
Swedish fish – I found mini swedish fish at my local candy store
Trifle Bowl

Directions:

1. Heat 6 cups of lemon-lime soda to boiling.
2. Sprinkle gelatin over 2 cups of cold lemon lime soda in a large bowl. Let stand 1 minute.
3. Add the hot juice to the gelatin mixture and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. About 5 minutes.
4. Add a few drops of blue food coloring to get a nice shade of blue for the water
5. Pour the gelatin mixture into the trifle bowl and refrigerate until firm.
6. Prior to serving, cut a slit in the jello and slide the swedish fish in. The fish will soggy and liquify if left in the jello for too long. Serve the jello within 6 hours of inserting the fish. I focused on the perimeter of the bowl, for the best visual effect.

Fishing Penguin
Supplies:

• Penguin Image
  
  Right Click on the penguin you want, select View Image, and then save to your computer or print.
• Lollipop Stick
• Bakers twine, string
• toothpick
• hot glue
• 1 Swedish fish

Directions:

1. Print the penguin on white card stock and cut out. (I used a glitter card stock. I should have kept it on plain white to back the colors pop more) I am also including an SVG file if you want to cut and piece the penguin yourself with your personal cutting machine.You can download the SVG file here: http://www.4shared.com/file/J_HwWElC/PenguinScarf.html – See Important note at the bottom
2. Wrap your twine around the end of the lollipop stick a few time and secure with glue. I used tissue paper yarn because that is what I had on hand. 
3. Use a toothpick to poke a hole through the Swedish fish and insert the other end of the twine through the fishes head. Note: It might take a bit of adjusting to figure out how long the twine should be. It all depends on where you put the fish in the jello lake. 
4. Cut a shallow slit on the surface of your jello and insert half of the “hooked” Swedish fish
5. Glue the penguin on the slide of the trifle dish. I used hot glue and it came off just fine at the end of the party. 
6. Glue the lollipop stick fishing pole so that it looks like the penguin is holding the pole. The pole is secured to the back of the penguin. You may need to trim the lollipop stick as well.

This post is getting long but I have to include the big mistakes I made.

1. I used a blue gatorade instead of Sprite and food coloring. Result: It was just nasty tasting. Poor judgement on my part I guess.
2. I made the whole thing the night before. The fish got all soggy and weird. When I went to serve it, it just didn’t look so appetizing.
3. I tried to insert the fish as the jello was setting up. It actually worked okay, but that meant the fish were in the jello a long time. See #2 above.

Important: The Penguin image was created by me to be shared by me for FREE. Do not redistribute the image or SVG file without prior consent and without linking back to cuteasafox.com. Under no circumstances is this image to be sold.

Thanks for the cooperation. I think we have one or two more Penguin Party posts! 

Special thanks to Vanessa for the pictures in this post. She is a lifesaver.
Vanessa also did a post about the cakes she made, in case you missed them: http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/01/winter-cake-anyone.html