Re: SUBSTITUTE FOR GELATIN
I dunno where you live, but here in Brooklyn some of the desi grocery stores carry halal gelatin... you can find it there SOMETIMES, not all the time though. I've started doing all my shopping from the israeli markets, and EVERY SINGLE STORE i've been to carries the kosher gelatin. At least 3 different types of brands. From what I know, their fridays and saturday dinners absolutely require the ladies to bake bake bake and make sweets so kosher gelatin is a major staple of their diets.
You can even check out the kosher aisles in big stores like SHOPRITE, they have em.