Strawberry Feast - Strawberry Jelly Slice and Strawberry Kebabs

We have a Strawberry Festival to celebrate the strawberry season in the area where I live in September.  Local school has a school fete to invite the locals to join the fun that kids enjoy merry-go-round, face paintings, dancing performance and most important of all, eating strawberries all day long.  Strawberry is not only a very delicious and nutritious fruit, it can be prepared in a variety of ways.  To name a few, there are strawberry and cream, strawberry jam and strawberry sponge cake.  It would not be perfect having chocolate fondue without strawberry.  I like to buy the biggest strawberry as it tastes the sweetest.    Let's celebrate the strawberry season with my strawberry jelly slice and strawberry kebab.  Recipe of the jelly slice is based on the recipe from Cakes & Slices Cookbook published by the Australian Women's Weekly.

Strawberry Jelly Slice

Ingredients:
Make about 10 slices

2 cups (250g) sweet biscuits
125g butter, melted
100g pink marshmallows
1 teaspoon gelatine
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2/3 cup Pauls low-fat thickened cream
5 strawberries, halved
2x100g packets strawberry jelly
2 cups boiling water

Methods:

1. Grease a 19cmx29cm lamington pan.
2. Process the biscuits into crumbs by an electric blender.  Combine crumbs and butter in a bowl, mix well.  Press evenly over base of the pan and put into the fridge for about 30 minutes or until firm.
3. Combine marshmallows, gelatine and milk in a saucepan, stir over low heat without boiling until marshmallows are melted.  Add in the vanilla essence.  Leave cool to room temperature.
4. Whip cream in a separate bowl until soft peaks form,  add the marshmallow mixture.  Pour over the biscuits base.  Refrigerate for another 30 minutes or until firm.
5. Dissolve jelly in boiling water, cool to room temperature.  Pour jelly over the marshmallow filling.
6. Push the halved strawberries into the semi-settle jelly and refrigerate until firm before cutting. 

Note: Pauls' low-fat thickened cream is the only brand that can be whipped.  It takes a bit longer to whip than the full cream one and it does not whip perfectly.  The gelatine helps the marshmallow filling to set.   I am trying to cut down as much fat as possible in this recipe.

Strawberry Kebabs

make 4 kebabs

Ingredients:

strawberries

white & pink marshmallows

50g dairy milk chocolate, melted

4 bamboo skewers

Method:
Simply skew the strawberries and marshmallows through the skewer and drizzle with warm melted chocolate.  Enjoy!