Tonic Water - The Secret to Ghostly Glowing Jell-O Shots

In Normal Light   Under the Black Light 

This is the coolest – Jell-O that glows under black light. What’s the trick? Tonic water.
The quinine is luminescent under ultraviolet light. Jell-O made with tonic water will light
up eerily. We found that Berry Blue is one of the best colors to show off that ectoplasmic
glow. You’ll get a brighter light if you make your Jell-O with tonic water as the only liquid
(boiling half, and adding half cold), but it won’t taste that good. Plus, you want some
booze in there. We found that some Malibu takes the edge off the quinine’s bitterness
and works well with the berry flavor. Make regular Jell-O shots, or use a mold to make a
glowing brain. Glowing Jell-O also looks good in other props, like syringes and petri
dishes.

Boo-Berry Black Light Jell-O Shots

3 oz. pkg Berry Blue Jell-O
1 cup Tonic Water
¾ cup Malibu plus ¼ cup tonic water

Bring one cup of tonic water to a boil. Add to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Allow to cool
to room temperature. Stir in the Malibu and additional tonic. Pour into cups and chill. If
using a brain mold, multiply this recipe by four (use two 6 oz. boxes of Jell-O).

The Eyes Have It

Your guests will feel like they’re on Fear Factor when you serve them these eyeball Jell-
O shots. Canned lychee nuts make pretty convincing and gross looking eyeballs. For an
extra burst of alcoholic goodness, soak them in vodka overnight. Stuff them with
gumdrops (we used Dots candies) or maraschino cherries, and add a bit of licorice
candy for the pupil.

Then place them in cups and pour in the Jell-O. If you’re using an opaque or dark
colored Jell-O, fill the cups halfway and put in the fridge. When the Jell-O is set, put
your eyeball on it, and pour Jell-O around the eye so it’s peeking out the top.
Construct the Eyeballs from Lychee Fruits

If you’re using transparent Jell-O, these shots really look best in clear cups, so you get
the full effect of seeing the eyeball floating in it. But they also work in paper cups as long
as the eye is peeking up above the Jell-O’s surface.

Eyeballs in Aspic

2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin

2 cups water
1 cup Peach Schnapps (or other clear schnapps)
1/2 cup sugar

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a saucepan and let sit for a few minutes. Heat over
low heat until gelatin starts to melt. Add sugar and keep stirring until the sugar and
gelatin are completely dissolved. Add schnapps. Pour into cups (with or without
eyeballs) and chill.

Eyeballs in Toxic Green Jell-O

3 oz. pkg Lime Jell-O

1 cup water
1 cup Apple Pucker or other sour apple schnapps (or ½ cup water + ½ cup vodka or
other hard liquor)

Bring the water to a boil. Add to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Allow to cool to room
temperature. Stir in liquor. Pour into cups with eyeballs and chill.

Strawberry Pink Eyes

3 oz. pkg Strawberry or Wild Strawberry Jell-O
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup vodka
3/4 cup Strawberry Pucker

Bring the water to a boil. Add to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Allow to cool to room
temperature. Slowly stir in the cream and mix until totally incorporated. Stir in the
liquors. Fill cups halfway and chill till firm. Place an eyeball in each cup and pour Jell-O
around it till it is partially covered. Chill again until firm.

For those who like their eyeballs straight up, no chaser, we also made some eyes
molded from gelatin using a ice tray designed to make spherical ice balls. Getting the
gelatin into the mold was a little tricky. We carefully poured the gelatin mixture into the
hole in the top of each individual sphere until it was half filled, chilled it, and then filled it
the rest of the way. You may have to do something different depending on the type of
tray you use. After unmolding, we painted on irises and pupils using gel food coloring.
Regular food coloring is too liquid and will run.

Coconut Malibu Eyeballs

2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin

1 cup canned, unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup Malibu
½ cup sugar
Sprinkle the gelatin over the coconut milk in a saucepan and let sit for a few minutes.
Heat over low heat, stirring, until the gelatin starts to dissolve. Add the sugar and stir till
dissolved. Cool till just warm. Stir in the Malibu. Pour into spherical ice mold that has
been sprayed with cooking spray. After chilling and unmolding, paint on details with gel
or paste food coloring.

Use spherical ice cube molds

For added grossness, use a large syringe to squirt some red (gelled) Jell-O into the
center of the eyeball, or some other thick filling, like pudding. Insert the syringe carefully
and squirt the filling out slowly so it doesn’t explode the eyeball.
Most Disgusting Jell-O Shot?

Looking for something even grosser than eyeballs? Make the brain hemorrhage Jell-O
shot, which is based on the drink of the same name. Clear Jell-O shot cups are a
necessity to get this one to work its magic. A few dropperfuls of Irish Cream coagulate
into a fleshy, phlegmy-looking glob suspended in clear gelatin “formaldehyde”. A bit of
red cherry Jell-O “blood” finishes it off. Bon appetit.

Brain Hemorrhage Jell-O Shots

2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin

2 cups water
1 cup Peach Schnapps
1/2 cup sugar
Bailey’s or a similar Irish Cream liqueur
Cherry Jell-O

 Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a saucepan and let sit for a few minutes. Heat over
low heat until gelatin starts to melt. Add sugar and keep stirring until the sugar and
gelatin are completely dissolved. Pour into cups and let stand at room temperature until
the gelatin sets to the consistency of egg whites. With an eye dropper, carefully drop
some Irish Cream into each shot. In order to get the best effect, you may need to
submerge the dropper so it releases the liqueur into the center of the shot.
  
Use a dropper to spooge in the Irish Cream

Add two or three droppers, until you have a goopy, blobby mass. If the Irish Cream does
not stay suspended in the gelatin and just falls to the bottom of the cup, let the gelatin
stand and thicken a little longer. Mix up a small amount of cherry Jell-O mixture, with or
without alcohol (you can just add a little water to a few spoonfuls of Jell-O powder). Add
a few drops of cherry Jell-O to each shot, on top of the Irish Cream. Chill till completely
firm.

The Great Drunken Pumpkin

What’s better than pumpkin pie? Pumpkin pie with booze in it! This is an alcoholic spin
on a traditional fall favorite that you can use throughout the holidays. You can pour the
pumpkin mixture straight into cups, or use Keebler ready-to-use mini graham cracker
crusts. You could even crush up some graham crackers and make mini crusts inside
Jell-O shot cups. Because it has no eggs and little dairy, this recipe lacks some of the
richness of regular pumpkin pie. We added some butterscotch schnapps to make up for
that, and a dollop of whipped cream will do the rest.
  
Vodka and Butterscotch Schnapps

Great Drunken Pumpkin Pie Jell-O Shots

8 Keebler mini graham cracker crusts

1 envelope Knox gelatin
1 cup water + 1/4 cup for later
1/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ cup vodka
½ tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp butterscotch schnapps
Whipped cream topping
Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in saucepan and let sit a few minutes. Heat over low
heat while stirring until the gelatin is dissolved. Add the pumpkin, sugar, and spice and
continue stirring over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
Remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes. Combine liquors, ¼ cup water, and cream
in a bowl. Whisk in the pumpkin mixture and pour into pie crusts or shot cups. Chill and
serve with whipped cream.

Candy Apple Jell-O Shots

Candied apples are another favorite Halloween time treat, and here we’ve created a
Jell-O shot version. This apple gelatin is good by itself – tasty, tart, and with just a hint
of effervescence from the cider. Top it off with some caramel ice cream topping and it’s
perfect. Or, if you want to go the gross-out route, stick in some gummy maggots before
it gels for a maggoty apple shot.
Basic Apple Cider Jell-O
1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup water
1 cup hard apple cider, divided in half
1/4 cup Apple Pucker or other sour apple schnapps

Combine the water with ½ cup cider in a saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over it and let
sit for a few minutes. Heat over low heat, stirring, until the gelatin starts to dissolve. Cool
till just warm. Stir in the remaining cider and the apple schnapps. Pour into cups and
chill. Top with caramel ice cream topping if desired.
It’s Not Halloween Without Candy Corn

Candy corn is a Halloween staple, and though some people love it or hate it, we think
everyone will enjoy these candy corn Jell-O shots. We did our best to approximate that
sweet candy corn flavor using vanilla schnapps, but there’s also tropical overtones from
the coconut, pineapple, and orange. These take a little extra time and work because of
the three layers, but they look great and your guests will be impressed. It’s important to
get the layers in the right order so the colors correspond to the candy. This is one where
it’s important to use clear shot cups in order to get the full effect.

Candy Corn Jell-O Shots

Mix the white layer first and fill your Jell-O shot cups about 1/3 full (about ¼ inch deep
on a 2oz cup), then chill till firm. Mix the orange layer and fill the cups till they’re about
2/3 full. Keep in mind that you’ll need a little room at the top because you won’t be filling
the cups to the brim with the final layer. After the orange layer has chilled, mix up the
yellow layer and top off the shots.

White Layer

1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup canned, unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup Vanilla Schnapps

Sprinkle the gelatin over the coconut milk and water in a saucepan and let sit for a few
minutes. Heat over low heat, stirring, until the gelatin starts to dissolve. Add the sugar
and stir till dissolved. Cool till just warm. Stir in the vanilla schnapps.
Orange Layer

3 oz. pkg Orange Jell-O

1 cup water
4 oz. Orange sherbet (about one scoop)
1/2 cup Vanilla schnapps
Orange food coloring (if desired)

Bring the water to a boil. Add to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Add sherbet while still
warm and mix thoroughly as it melts. Allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in vanilla
schnapps. Add a few drops of orange food coloring to make the color more vivid if you
want to.

Yellow Layer

3 oz. pkg Pineapple Jell-O

1 cup water
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1/2 cup Vanilla schnapps
Yellow food coloring (if desired)

Bring the water to a boil. Add to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Allow to cool to room
temperature. Stir in coconut milk and vanilla schnapps. Add a few drops of yellow food
coloring for more vivid color.

Black Jell-O Shots

Jell-O shots typically come in a rainbow of colors, but for Halloween, we took things
over to the dark side and cooked up some black Jell-O. The secret ingredient is black
gel food coloring. For true black Jell-O, you can use unflavored, uncolored gelatin as a
base. You can also add black food coloring to regular Jell-O. The black gel food coloring
is so intense it would probably turn any flavor of Jell-O black, but a hint of the original
color would probably remain. We suggest using one of the darker colored Jell-Os like
Black Cherry. You can use any liquor you like in black Jell-O, although, again, if the
liquor is brightly colored it might tint the black a little, so we suggest something clear or
dark. We thought black Jell-O should taste licorice-y, so we chose to use Jagermeister,
but you could also use any licorice liqueur.
Solid black shots look cool, but we also made some layered shots with black and
orange and black and green. For better contrast against the black, we added a bit of
orange and lime sherbet respectively to the orange and green, to lighten the color and
give it some opacity. Black Jell-O also looks cool in molded Halloween shapes. We
made some skulls using a silicone ice tray. If you’re using a mold, be sure to spray it
with cooking spray first for easy release.

Black Jell-O

1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin

1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup Jagermeister
Black gel or paste food coloring

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a saucepan and let sit for a few minutes. Heat over
low heat, stirring, until the gelatin starts to dissolve. Add the sugar and stir till dissolved.
Cool till just warm. Stir in the Jagermeister. In a small dish, mix a few drops of food
coloring into a small amount of water till dissolved. Repeat if the gelatin doesn't look
black enough. Pour into shot cups and chill.

Black Cherry Black Jell-O

3 oz. pkg Black Cherry Jell-O

1 1/4 cup water
3/4 cup Jagermeister
Black gel or paste food coloring
Bring the water to a boil. Add to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Allow to cool to room
temperature. Stir in Jagermeister. In a small dish, mix a few drops of food coloring into a
small amount of water till dissolved. Add to the Jell-O and stir in. Repeat if the Jell-O
doesn't look black enough. Pour into cups and chill.

Blackberry Black Jell-O

3 oz. pkg Blackberry Fusion Jell-O

1 cup water
3/4 cup Blackberry schnapps
1/4 cup vodka
Black gel or paste food coloring

Bring the water to a boil. Add to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Allow to cool to room
temperature. Stir in Jagermeister. In a small dish, mix a few drops of food coloring into a
small amount of water till dissolved. Add to the Jell-O and stir in. Repeat if the Jell-O
doesn't look black enough. Pour into cups and chill.

Intensive Jell-O Ward

Medical and lab themed props are another great way to make your Jell-O shots scarier.
Use large syringes (without needles) to suck up your Jell-O mixture, and then chill as
usual. A size somewhere between 30ml and 60ml will deliver a decent shot sized “shot”.
The 60ml catheter tip syringes we found were ideal and included a cap to put over the
end – nice to keep the Jell-O from dripping.
An IV or feeding bag with tubing is another creepy Jell-O delivery method, with the
flavor of choice being blood-red cherry. Guests can just suck their Jell-O shots right
from the tube. Because the tubing is very narrow, the Jell-O mixture needs to be more
liquid than usual so it can flow. You can achieve this by adding more liquid (either more
water or alcohol) and chilling the filled bag only enough to get it cold, not to gel the
contents. If adding more liquid to the mixture makes it taste too watery, add a little
cherry Kool-Aid powder to bring some of the flavor back.
To really get into mad scientist mode, serve Jell-O shots in plastic petri dishes (available
from science supply stores). Wash the petri dishes out before you use them, then pour
in your favorite Jell-O shot mixture. After they’ve chilled, you can add “microbes” by
topping the Jell-O with candy sprinkles, other flavors of Jell-O powder, or cotton candy
(to simulate mold). Serve them with large wooden tongue depressors so guests can
scrape out the contents.
The Worms Crawl in, the Worms Crawl Out

Bugs and other creepy crawlies can find their way into your Jell-O shots. Gummy worms
are the best because you can drape them over the edge of the cup so they look like
they’re crawling out, but you can add any gummy bug to your Jell-O. It would be cool if
you could put real edible insects in your shots, and there are real cooked insects that
you can buy packaged, like Crick-ettes crispy fried crickets, but those come in savory
flavors like cheddar cheese and sour cream and onion, so they wouldn’t go well with
Jell-O.

One note with regard to insect infested Jell-O: Don’t garnish your shots with plastic
spiders, flies, or other plastic or rubber insects. Some drunk person may accidentally try
to swallow them and they could be a choking hazard.

Gummy Worms in Lime Slime

3 oz. pkg Lime Jell-O

1 cup water
4 oz. Lime sherbet (about one scoop)
1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup water

Add 1 cup boiling water to Jell-O and stir till dissolved. Add sherbet while still warm and
mix thoroughly as it melts. Allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in vodka and 1/2 cup
cold water. Pour into cups, add gummy worms, and chill.