Easy Gummy Bear Recipe with Jello

An easy gummy bear recipe with Jello. These rainbow colored DIY gummy bears are perfect for birthday parties, Pride celebrations, and everyday snacking.

What Inspired This Gummy Bear Recipe?

When I started this blog nearly a decade ago, I chose the name “Baste Cut Fold” because it reflects both of my worlds: costume design and cooking. Baste, cut, and fold are all frequently-used terms in the food industry, but they all mean things to costumers and seamstresses, too.

I’m classically trained in pastry, but equally proud to have a dual career as a costumer designer and wardrobe stylist for theatre, television, and print. There are many ups and downs to working in the entertainment industry, and rarely is it as glamorous as it looks from the outside. But I do truly enjoy the creative parts of my work, especially when I get to design with full creative freedom. And the culinary world is very much the same!

Gummy Bears and Broadway Bares

One of my favorite events to costume is Broadway Bares. Broadway Bares is a burlesque show produced annually by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a charity which supplies medications, health care, food, counseling, and emergency financial assistance across the United States. Hundreds of designers, makeup artists, hair stylists, stage managers, technicians, dancers, choreographers, and other industry professionals volunteer their time to help create Broadway Bares each June, with proceeds benefitting BC/EFA.

I started designing for Broadway Bares way back in 2007, designing Eat Me/Drink Me costumes for Broadway Bares: Wonderland, the Alice in Wonderland-themed show. It is always a crazy, glittery day, and I look forward to participating each year.

Over the years I’ve created costumes based on technology, works of art, fairy tales, and lots more. One of my favorites was the year I designed costumes for a diner waitress and a soda jerk, and made some pretty realistic fake ice cream props. (We needed something that would last all day, and not melt under hot stage lights!) I especially loved that year’s show because it combined both of my passions: costumes and confections!

A Gummy Bear Recipe for Bares

Broadway Bares  always takes place during the month of June, the weekend before NYC Pride. (I’ve had more than one dancer tell me that they planned to save their Bares costume and wear it to the parade!) So, in celebration of Broadway Bares, and the annual Pride festivities, I decided to create a recipe for rainbow gummy bears.

These gummy bears only require a handful of ingredients: water, cooking spray, flavored Jello and plain, unflavored gelatin, all of which are easily found at a neighborhood grocery store in the US (or on Amazon in the UK!) I made my gummy bears in rainbow colors, but you can choose the Jello shades and flavors you enjoy most.

Ingredients for Making This Easy Gummy Bear Recipe with Jello

To make homemade gummy bears from Jello, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Jello – If making an entire rainbow of gummy bears, you will need six 3-ounce (85-gram) packages (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, in flavors of your choice). I used cherry, orange, lemon, lime, berry blue, and grape. I have not tested this recipe with sugar free Jello.
  
• Unflavored Gelatin – You will need six .25-ounce (7-gram) packages of powdered unflavored gelatin, such as Knox. You can also purchase a large tub of gelatin and weigh out 7 grams, or about 2 teaspoons, for each batch.
• Nonstick Cooking Spray – For preparing the silicone gummy bear mold.

How to Make Gummy Bears

Making homemade gummy bears is a simple process, requiring just a few ingredients, an eye dropper, and a silicone mold. Flavored Jello provides the color and taste, while unflavored gelatin creates the chewy texture.

After whisking togerher Jello, gelatin, and water, just microwave the mixture, then carefully drop it into a silicone mold:

After a short time in the fridge, just pop the gummy bears from the mold:

You can repeat this process  with as many flavors and colors as you’d like. As one batch chills, get the next one going, and keep going until you have a full rainbow of colors. And enjoy!

Tips and Tricks for Making DIY Gummy Bears

• If you use a full package of Jello and make all six colors of the rainbow, you will make a lot of bears—approximately 830 grams, or about 4 1/2 to 5 cups of gummy bears. For smaller quantities you can make half batches, or limit yourself to 2-3 colors rather than the entire rainbow.
• Don’t leave the eye dropper in the Jello mixture. The gelatin will set as it cools, clogging the eye dropper.
• If the Jello-gelatin mixture starts to set as you work, rewarm it briefly in the microwave until it returns to liquid fom.

Special Tools and Equipment

You will need an eye dropper and a silicone gummy bear mold for this recipe. I strongly suggest a plastic eye dropper rather than glass—if glass breaks, you’ll have to discard the entire batch of bears.

If you’re short on time, it will be helpful to have several sets of silicone gummy bear molds. I only have two molds, so making six colors takes a couple of hours. For large batches, another set of molds will definitely speed things along.

You will also need a microwave for quickly heating the small bowls of gelatin, and for rewarming the mixture as you work.

I also recommend having a spouted measuring cup, a silicone whisk, and a quarter sheet tray on hand.

Make-Ahead and Storage Suggestions

Homemade gummy bears will keep for about two weeks. Store in a plastic food storage bag or an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Other candy recipes you might enjoy:

Caramel Apple Lollipops
Lemon Drops Hard Candy
Homemade Candy Corn
Cookies and Cream Marshmallows

And if you do make these, or any of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me @bastecutfold or use the hashtag #bastecutfold on Instagram. I always love to see what you’re making!

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