Cake in a Jar

Cakes baked in jars can be topped with traditional metal canning lids and stored in the fridge for up to five days. They make a great treat to ship to someone, so long as you can ensure delivery to it’s final destination within 3 days. Of course, you don’t have to do anything special with your cake-in-a-jar. There’s something lively & different about serving personal-sized batched of cake in glass mason jars. They make for great dinner party conversations and ever better after-school surprises for your kiddos.

Rainbow Cake in Jar http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/04/08/rainbow-cake-in-a-jar/

Quote :

1 box white cake mix made according to package instructions
Neon food coloring in pink, yellow, green, turquoise, and purple
3 one-pint canning jars
1 can vanilla frosting
Rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly wash and dry the inside of each canning jar. Spray the inside of each jar thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Scoop about 1/2 cups of cake batter into five small bowls. It doesn’t have to be perfect, don’t panic if you get a little more of less of one color than another. Tint each bowl of cake batter with the food coloring until very vibrant.

Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the purple batter into the bottom of each jar. Spoon equal amounts of turquoise batter, then green, yellow, and pink. Place the jars in a shallow baking dish, add about 1/4″ in water in the baking dish. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Remove jars and allow to cool completely before scooping a small portion from the top of your cake and adding a hefty dollop of vanilla buttercream to the top. Sprinkle & serve, or cover with a lid and store in the fridge or pop into the mail & surprise someone you love!

POST EDIT: Several commenters have indicated that the cake is not cooking all the way through in the 30-35 minutes indicated in the recipe. This was enough time for our cake, but I’m cooking at high altitudes, and my oven tends to bake hot. So, I’d recommend baking the cake for 40 minutes, then return it to the oven if it still doesn’t spring back to the touch when you check to see if it’s finished. As for the cake puffing up and out of it’s bottle, ours did that a bit, as well. Easy fix. We just scooped a bit of the cake out to make room for the frosting and wiped the outside of our jars clean. Several people have indicated that the wide-mouthed mason jars work a little better for this purpose. I’ve not yet baked with wide-mouthed. What you see above is what was baked in my kitchen according to the recipe instructions, and what came out of the oven when it was all. Of course, if you’re feeling wildly impatient, you can also zap the cake in the microwave for 2 minutes. It’s going to bubble up, for sure, but you can scoop the top part of that cake out, frost it, and no one will ever be the wiser. Good luck, everyone! This is such a fun cake. My kids went nuts over it, and I hope it works as beautifully for you as it did for us!

Rainbow Layer Cake with Natural Dyes (adapted from Itsy Bitsy Foodies)

for the natural dyes
red –1/3 cup steamed beets, grated fine, plus 1/3 cup milk
orange — 1/3 cup carrots, grated fine, plus 1/3 cup milk
yellow — 2 egg yolks, plus 1/3 cup milk
green — 1 cup raw spinach, washed, dried, and well chopped, plus 1/3 cup milk
blue — 3/4 cup blueberries, cooked 3 minutes, or until juices are released, plus 1/3 cup milk
violet — 1/2 cup blueberries, cooked as above, and 2 tablespoons steamed beets, grated, plus 1/3 cup milk

For each color, combine 1/3 cup milk and the coloring agent in a blender, and blend well. Rinse the blender well between each layer. Pour individual colors into jars and set aside while you prepare the cake batter.

for the white cake
7 cups cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
4 egg whites
3 tablespoons neutral oil
2/3 cups milk
1 cup plain yogurt
5 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour six 8″ cake pans and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

In a small bowl, combine the yogurt and milk and set aside.

In another large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for 3 minutes (If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.). Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes, until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Add the egg whites, and beat until well combined. Add the vanilla. With mixer on low, add half the flour, half the yogurt mixture, the remaining flour, and the remaining yogurt mixture. Mix on low until ingredients are fully combined.

The dough will be quite thick at this point. Divide the dough into half, and then divide each half into thirds, for a total of 6 equal portions of just over 2 cups each (At this point, I prepared and baked 3 of the layers, and then the next 3. If you have the cake pans/oven capacity for all 6 at once, go for it). Set each portion into a small bowl and mix 1/3 a cup of the prepared milk dye into each one. Do your best to fully combine the milk, but not over mix.

Spoon each layer into the prepared cake pan, and bake for roughly 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mix and bake all the layers (being sure to keep track of which color is which), and then allow each to completely cool on a rack. Once layers are completely cool, wrap them in plastic and stick in the freezer (chilled cake will be easier to work with), taking care to keep each layer flat, for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. I used a classic buttercream, like this one, for my layers and crumb coat, and a sweetened whipped cream for the outer layer.

Once layers are cool, assess and trim any if needed. Then stack the layers with buttercream in between, spread on the crumb coat, chill for 30 minutes, add the whipped cream, and serve.

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/04/smores-cake-in-a-jar/

Just so we’re clear, s’mores jar cakes have buttery graham crusts covered with fluffy double chocolate chip cake and pillowy marshmallow toppings that are so perfectly browned and bubbly you can taste the campfire and smell the midnight July breeze.

S’mores Cake in a Jar

makes 4 16-ounce mason jar cakes

for crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 stick butter
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter and mix in graham crumbs and salt. Mix until moistened. Spray 4 mason jars with non-stick spray and press graham crust into jars. I began by adding a tablespoon to each, and repeating until graham crumbs were gone. They don’t need to look perfect. I pressed the crumbs down firmly with the flat bottom of a clean screwdriver.



for cake: (from peanut butter hot fudge cupcakes)

1 1/8 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons sour cream

for topping:

1 bag of large marshmallows

In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth. Using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to mason jars one scoop at a time. You only want to fill them up about half way, and the batter should work evenly for 4 jars. Again – don’t worry if it is perfect. Place mason jars in a baking dish and add about 1 1/2 cups of water to the bottom. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake is set.

Remove cake from the oven and press large marshmallows down on top, being careful not to burn yourself. There is no set number of marshmallows to use, I pressed down as many as I could, about 4-5 each. Heat the broiler on your oven and watching carefully, brown marshmallows for about 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Do not take your eyes off them! Serve immediately.



Notes

*The recipe looks really long, but it is actually really easy! *When you put the marshmallows on top and broil, they may sink down below the edges of the chocolate cake. This is normal. The cake it still more than halfway to the top. *These are pretty rich and sweet, and make a really great dessert for two people to share with two spoons… but can still be eaten by one. *You can use other sizes of jars, just use your eye to decided how much batter to use, never going over half way. If you have too much batter, just make a few cupcakes.