Make popping candy
21 February 2026
Make your edible space dust We’re going to make our own version of space dust! Whaaaaat?! Surely you need a
What’s this we have here? A bowl of tempting trifle, of course! But what secrets are buried within its luxurious layers? Ooh, your lucky dinner guest is going to be in for a BIG surprise when they start excavating! Your mission is to follow our recipe and create a trilobite trifle – that is, a cake with hidden fossils inside! Yum!
– Helpful adult
– 20 cm pyrex bowl
Optional ingredients
– Sponge fingers
– Swiss roll
– Jelly (approx one packet) – vegan alternatives are available
– Custard
– Whipped cream
– Crushed digestive biscuits
– Angel Delight
– Jelly worms
– Foam shrimps
– Pretzels
– Kiwis
– Bananas
– Anything else you can think of as long as it’s safe and edible. Crisps, fruit, frozen peas – the choice is yours, but remember that you need to be able to eat what you make and so will your guests.
Look at pictures of strata and the fossil record either online or in books. This will give you some idea of what your finished trifle might look like. Work out what ingredients might help you recreate this in dessert form.
Draw your trifle in the bowl which you can download here Trilobite-trifle-Template.
Add notes to show where the different ingredients will sit. Think about how each ingredient will interact with the layer below and above it. For example, jelly can go on top of sponge and below custard without too many issues, but jelly on top of custard may not work quite as well. Can you think about why and formulate a rule for this? I bet you can.
It’s up to you whether you want to actually make your trifle. If you do, gather your ingredients and get to work. Make the jelly, crush the biscuits, spoon the custard, whip the cream, sprinkle the… erm sprinkles. Jelly worms make great Wufengella (ancient, hairy, armoured worm like creatures that lived in our oceans over 500 million years ago). Foam shrimps look just like antrimpos fossils – enormous shrimps from the Triassic and Jurassic periods. Can you make a trilobite fossil from foam bananas or slices of kiwi? Follow the instructions on various packets and jars. Ask an adult to help with any tricky bits.
Place your trilobite trifles in a fridge to keep cool until your guests arrive.
It’s time to serve your Terrific Trilobite Trifle! Invite any hungry palaeontologists over and give them a spoon – let’s see who can find the fossils first!
Please send your pictures to the usual address on the AQUILAnauts’ page of the AQUILA website and we’ll share as many as we can (even if we can’t actually taste them).
If you enjoyed this activity, then why not think about a subscription to AQUILA magazine!
© AQUILA MAGAZINE. Written by Jennifer Newton-Brown
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