"champagne" jello

Today is exactly 366(or 367, considering 2016 is a leap year) since I uploaded my very first video to YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IWg8VBLMMY). So I consider April 30 to be the Meatloaf Princess channel's birthday, and in honor of that milestone, I decided to make "champagne" jello(the "champagne" being white sparkling grape juice, but you could use actual champagne if you wanted to in this recipe).

I have learned a lot in this first year as a YouTuber(but no so much that I could write a whole Medium post about it). Skills I have learned:

•     Many forms of cooking(see all of my previous videos for proof)
•     Basic video editing using iMovie
•     Tricks to make iMovie videos as professional as possible(like including an animated intro by using an animated slide of the logo in Keynote[Apple's version of PowerPoint], and creating an end card in Keynote).
•     On-camera skills(OK, I admit I'm still not the best on camera but I certainly have improved over the past year).

Skills I haven't mastered:

•     Making videos as engaging as possible so that people don't close my video after the 2 minute mark.
•     Getting lots of new subscribers(I only have 126 at the moment)
•     Finding ways to market my channel to get discovered by lots more people
•     How to successfully make a viral video(I've come to the conclusion I probably will never have a video go viral, even if I use the craziest ingredients or food combinations, since no one can find my channel in the first place)
•     How to collaborate with other YouTubers(I'm extremely introverted plus I don't know how to fit a collab video in with my upcoming video schedule)

I was going to make a champagne jelly, using actual champagne, but that would require me purchasing a jelly maker(because I have no clue how to use a water bath since I've never canned anything in my life). Besides, I have prior experience making my own gelatin, so this wouldn't be any different, or so I thought.

I followed the recipe from http://sprinklesomefun.com/2012/12/sparkling-jello-jigglers-new-years-eve-party.html for the most part, and the end result was some white stuff on top of each of the small bowls of jello. Mind you, the white stuff is perfectly harmless(I'm pretty sure it's just foam from the carbonation of the white sparkling grape juice), but it still bothered me. Even I thought the recipe was not so aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

In fact, I ate one of the 4 bowls of jello and I almost threw away the rest of the jello since I was dreading eating it, so I forced myself to eat it- by putting 2 of the 4 bowls of jello in my lunchbox at my day job that I usually eat from after the end of my work day. The only food in that lunchbox was the jello bowls. The 4th bowl tasted weird after three days of it being in the fridge, but that's what happens with homemade gelatin- as it gets older, the taste gets worse. So unlike cheese or wine, homemade jello doesn't improve with age.

The taste of the jello was OK, it tasted like a solidified version of white sparkling grape juice that was slightly sweeter due to the granulated sugar that I put in.

This is actually a pretty simple recipe- you only need 3 ingredients. Even I got to admit the chemical reaction of the sugar dissolving into the juice was cool. It was like I was back in 10th grade chemistry class again(or freshman year chemistry in college).

Makes 4 small bowls.

You will need:

For the cooking equipment:

A microwave-safe dish with a lid
4 small bowls
Plastic wrap

For the jello:

2 cups of "champagne"(white sparkling grape juice)
2 tbsp. of granulated sugar
2 packets of unflavored gelatin

1. Put all the ingredients inside the microwave-safe dish. Mix all the ingredients together. There will be white stuff on top of the liquid, that's not going to go away during the cooking process.
2. Let the gelatin mixture sit at room temperature for 3 minutes to let the gelatin bloom.
3. Cover the dish with its corresponding lid and microwave the mixture on high for 3 minutes.
4. Pour the mixture into 4 small bowls. Be very careful as you may lose some of the gelatin mixture during the transferring process, as most microwave-safe dishes don't pour liquid easily into smaller bowls!
5. Cover each small bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the small bowls with the gelatin mixture in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or until it sets.
6. Bon appetit!