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 labour intensive. With a bit of time and patience, these mooncakes aren’t impossible to make! Equipment wise, you’ll need a sphere mould 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 centre stage in this all-natural jelly mooncake recipe. The fruits lend the mooncakes not only their flavours, but also their bright, punchy colours. With an inviting fuchsia skin and bright orange centre, 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-flavoured skin. Basically, you’ll have all the familiar flavours of cendol condensed into a single bite. And we reckon no one – not even the kids – would say no to that!
Ingredients:
Jelly yolks:
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ¾ tsp agar-agar powder
- 200ml water
- 1-2 drops orange colouring
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp evaporated milk
Filling:
- 75g sugar
- 1 tbsp agar-agar powder
- 225ml water
- 2 pandan leaves, knotted
- 150ml thick coconut milk
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp evaporated milk
- 150g cendol
Skin:
- 45g sugar
- 120g gula melaka (palm sugar)
- 1½ tbsp agar-agar powder
- 1½ tbsp instant jelly powder
- 600ml water
- 300ml coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp evaporated milk
- 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water
Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival With These Homemade Jelly Mooncake Recipes
Whether you’re planning to try a baked, snow skin, or jelly mooncake recipe, the best part of the process is being able to make them with your family. And while you’re at it, why not take the time to tell your kids about the fabled origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival? There’s nothing better than family bonding time with a story or two thrown in!
Just like how round mooncakes symbolise reunion and togetherness, we hope these recipes will help bring your family closer together. From all of us at the Shopee Blog, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to you and your family!
