Cake in a Jar

My boss loves red velvet cake. So I figured this cake in a jar pin from beehiveandbirdsnest would be the perfect thing to give her for Christmas.

beehiveandbirdsnest

I didn’t use Jennie’s cake recipe. I decided to use a box mix to make it easier on myself. Step one is to preheat the oven to 350 and grease the mason jars. I already had some half pint mason jars so that's what I used. However, any size can be used as long as it's a wide mouth jar.

Next- whip up your batter.

Pour the batter into the jars

Bake for 20-25 minutes in half pint mason jar. Jennie suggests 25-30 minutes for a pint jar.  

My first batch expanded and overflowed out the top.

But once they cooled, they shrunk significantly.

While the cakes are cooling, you can whip up the icing. I used Jennie’s recipe.

If you greased your jars properly, once the cakes are cool, they pop right out.

Mine didn’t look as perfectly cylinder and formed as Jennie’s did. I’m not sure why, perhaps it was the jars I used?

Cut the cake in half and place a piece of cake back in the [cleaned]  jar.

Then top with frosting and repeat.

I also added some Holiday sprinkles on top.

Since these were going to be gifts, I added labels and spoons.

I just noticed that I spelled velvet wrong! And I already gave this away. Ugh!

I had a green sharpie that I was going to use to make the labels, but it kept bleeding and the only other option I had was a blue pen. Oh well! It seems that this labeling thing didn't really work out for me.

The Verdict: I don’t like red velvet cake or cream cheese frosting so I can’t comment on the taste. Unfortunately mine didn’t come out looking as great as Jennies but I still think they are cute (despite the spelling error). I will say that I found the frosting to be a bit too thick.

These jar cakes are only a few more steps then making a standard cupcake and I would definitely make them again. I think my boss liked them as well. 

Things to Note/Consider: Take Jennie’s advice and use a Ziploc bag to pipe the frosting in. The first one I tried, I did with a spoon and it just got messy. Also, I would probably add a little milk to the frosting recipe to thin it a tad. Other than that, it was a great idea!