With the Mid-Autumn Festival just around the corner, it’s time to dust off the kids’ lanterns and shop around for the best mooncakes for your family. But if your kids aren’t fans of traditional baked mooncakes, they might just find jelly mooncakes much more palatable. After all, they’re usually made with fruits or ingredients like soy milk or Milo, which taste more familiar to little ones. So if you’re planning to whip up some of these yummy treats, we’ve rounded up the best jelly mooncake recipes that you can try with a little help from your kids.
Easy Kid-Friendly Jelly Mooncake Recipes
From fruit to osmanthus jelly mooncake recipes, we’ve got beginners covered. If you don’t already have jelly mooncake moulds, it’s best to get your hands on a couple before starting.
1. Osmanthus Jelly Mooncake (Vegan)
Usually served as a dessert in dim sum restaurants, the osmanthus jelly takes on the form of a delicate, translucent mooncake in this recipe. It’s bespeckled with dried osmanthus flowers and goji berries, but you can also pop a lychee or longan in each mooncake for an extra burst of sweetness.
Ingredients (makes 8):
6g dried goji berries
1 tsp dried osmanthus flowers
350ml hot water
850ml water
200g diamond rock sugar
4½ tsp agar-agar powder
3 tsp instant jelly powder
2. Lychee And Soy Milk Agar-Agar Mooncake (Vegan)
Sweet lychee and nutty soy milk make for a light and refreshing combo in this elegant agar-agar mooncake. The translucent top layer is infused with lychee syrup, while the bottom layer is made with soy milk. If you’d like to make these mooncakes look more festive, simply use square mooncake moulds in place of the 7-inch pan.
Ingredients (makes 16 cubes):
1 can (565g) of lychees
10g agar-agar powder
200g sugar
120ml lychee syrup from the can
680ml water
200ml unsweetened soy milk
3. Assorted Fruit Jelly Mooncake (Vegan)
Here’s a fruit jelly mooncake recipe that’s reminiscent of the once-popular konnyaku jelly. It’s so simple to make that you’ll be done in an hour or less. You can even get the kids to help place the chopped fruits in the mould. Just don’t limit yourself to these four fruits! Feel free to swap them out with others, as long as they’re in a variety of colours.
Ingredients (makes 12):
2 tsp agar-agar powder
2 tsp instant jelly powder
150g sugar
1L water
3 pandan leaves
Assorted fruits, diced (dragon fruit, kiwi, mango, strawberry)
4. Coconut Jelly Mooncake (Vegan)
For an easy and refreshing mid-autumn treat, this coconut jelly mooncake recipe ticks all the boxes. It requires only four ingredients, so it’s best made with fresh coconut water rather than sweetened ones that come in cartons. After all, you’ll also need some chewy coconut meat to add texture to an otherwise plain mooncake.
Ingredients (makes 8):
1.1L fresh coconut water with meat
110g sugar
1 tbsp + ⅓ tsp agar-agar powder
1 tbsp instant jelly powder
5. Milo Oreo Jelly Mooncake
Kiddos (and maybe the adults too) who grew up drinking Milo will be absolutely thrilled at the sight of this jelly mooncake recipe. Although it may seem a little more complicated with two jelly mixtures, the steps are fundamentally the same as the recipes above. Be sure to rope in the kids’ help with this one, especially when it comes to crushing the Oreo biscuits!
Ingredients:
Filling (makes 10-12):
300ml water
60g whipping cream
40g sugar
1¼ tsp agar-agar powder
½ tsp instant jelly powder
Oreo crumbs (optional)
Skin (makes 4-5):
2 sachets 3-in-1 Milo
500ml hot water
80g whipping cream
40g sugar
2¼ tsp agar-agar powder
1 tsp instant jelly powder
6. Soy Milk Grass Jelly Agar-Agar Mooncake
If anyone in the family is a fan of the Michael Jackson (soy milk and grass jelly) drink, this jelly mooncake recipe is a must-try. It uses barely a handful of ingredients, including pre-sweetened drinks, so it’ll be a cinch to make. Pro tip: If you’re concerned your jelly won’t set, do a quick test to check. Place a small puddle of jelly mixture on a plate and leave it in the freezer for a few minutes. If it sets, you’re good to go. If it doesn’t, dissolve a little more agar-agar powder in the mixture and repeat the process.
Ingredients (makes 12):
Filling:
600ml grass jelly drink (about 2 cans)
6g agar-agar powder
Skin:
800ml sweetened soy milk
200ml fresh milk
10g agar-agar powder
7. Custard Jelly Mooncake
Custard is usually a filling that goes with snow skin mooncake, but guess what? It works well with a jelly ‘skin’ too! If you’ve made custard before, the method is much the same, except you’ll have to add agar-agar powder to the hot milk mixture so the custard solidifies into a block.
Ingredients (makes 12):
Filling:
3 egg yolks, room temperature
105g castor sugar (if using coconut cream, reduce castor sugar to 75g)
7g cornstarch
100ml water, room temperature
4g agar-agar powder (or 3g for softer texture)
2-3 pandan leaves (optional)
200ml milk or coconut cream
25g butter (cold)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Skin:
5g agar-agar powder
300ml water, room temperature
80g castor sugar
5g cornstarch
Pinch of salt
200ml coconut cream or coconut milk
2-3 pandan leaves
8. Pandan Jelly Mooncake
Pandan is an easy way to add natural flavour and colouring to your desserts, and this double-layer jelly mooncake recipe uses lots of it. Both layers are infused with pandan, but the creamy top layer is a beautiful jade green thanks to the concentrated pandan juice that colours the entire mix.
Ingredients (makes 12):
Base clear layer:
5g agar-agar powder
80g sugar
500ml water, room temperature
1-2 pandan leaves
Top pandan layer:
6g agar-agar powder
12-20g pandan leaves
100ml water, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
300ml coconut milk, room temperature
95g sugar
200ml water, room temperature
Pinch of salt
Advanced Kid-Friendly Jelly Mooncake Recipes
If you’re ready to advance to more challenging jelly mooncake recipes, here are four that incorporate jelly ‘egg yolks’ for the perfect cross-section.
9. Pandan Jelly Mooncake (Vegan)
Oh yes, the ingredient list is way longer in this pandan jelly mooncake recipe. But before you give it a pass, the ingredients are pretty repetitive throughout although the recipe is a little more labor-intensive. With a bit of time and patience, these mooncakes aren’t impossible to make! Equipment-wise, you’ll need a sphere mold to shape the jelly yolks and a blender to render the carrot and pandan juices.
Ingredients (makes 4):
Jelly yolks:
150g carrots
300ml water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp agar-agar powder
¼ tsp instant jelly powder
Filling:
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp agar-agar powder
½ tsp instant jelly powder
250ml water
70ml coconut milk
Pandan leaf
Skin:
3 tsp sugar
1 tsp agar-agar powder
½ tsp instant jelly powder
250ml water
60ml coconut milk
3 pandan leaves
10. Dragon Fruit Agar-Agar Mooncake
Mango and dragon fruit take center stage in this all-natural jelly mooncake recipe. The fruits lend the mooncakes not only their flavors but also their bright, punchy colors. With an inviting fuchsia skin and bright orange center, this jelly mooncake will bring out the inner child in adults and wide smiles from the kids.
Ingredients (makes 4):
Mango yolks:
1/16 tsp fine salt
1½ tbsp sugar
1 tsp agar-agar powder
90g water
60g mango, diced
½ tbsp lemon juice
Filling:
45g red dragon fruit, mashed
½ tbsp cornstarch + 1 tbsp water
1 tsp agar-agar powder
30g sugar
145g milk, room temperature
Skin:
60g red dragon fruit, mashed
1¼ tsp agar-agar powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 pandan leaf
240g water
11. Cendol Agar-Agar Mooncake
Inspired by our local shaved ice dessert, this jelly mooncake recipe comes complete with a cendol coconut milk filling and gula melaka-flavored skin. Basically, you’ll have all the familiar flavors of cendol condensed into a single bite. And we reckon no one – not even the kids – would say
