You Put Cake... In A Jar?!

Oh the faces I get when people hear the words cake in a jar. In case you've never had a cake in a jar much less my cake in a jar... It's awesome. Stays moist, fresh & can last for 6 months to a year depending on what you have in the jar. Best part, it's not limited to one type of cake or even just cakes. I'll elaborate later. Bottom line is, everyone wants to know my secret to cake in a jar. I will divulge, however, some of my recipes are my recipes and I'm not quite sure how willing I am to share them just yet.

Here the story behind cake in a jar:
The leading ladies in my life... My mom, my grandma(Momo) and my Aunt(Lulu) LOVE German chocolate cake. I thought it would be an awesome surprise to send them some cake as a
Care package. Problem one... Mom lives outside of Seattle, Momo & Lulu live in Orange County, California and I live in Aiken, South Carolina. Yeah. Once Lulu mailed my mom a 13x9 cake for her birthday and well... It tasted the same. (0;

So begins my voyage into the pits of google. I came across a blog that I grew a huge liking too. Now I can't remember the name of the blog. It was ran by a soldiers wife who had a home sick soldier. She wanted to send him bits of home so she mailed him cakes and pies in a mason jar. When said soldier got the cakes and pies they were as fresh as the day she baked him helping him cope with some of his home sickness. BRILLIANT. cake in a jar. Game on. So thats where this started.

There is no HUGE secret to cake in a jar other than don't over fill your jars. You can make any cake you want, quite literally.

Here's my steps:
-I always boil my jars clean. I run them through the dishwasher first & boil any
soap off. I realize this seems OCD.

- I coat them with something to prevent sticking. My family has a great liking to butter. Much like Paula Deen does. So I melt a stick of butter and use a pastry brush and coat the insides. You can use a spray. It is personal preference.

- preheat the oven per your recipes direction. Make the cake batter per recipe as you would for any other cake

- partially fill the jars. I have tried countless methods to do this. I find in easiest to use the pour mouth (I have no idea what its really called) that comes in the jarring kit (It keep cake off of the sealing edges) and a measuring cup. Once again this is your own personal preference.

***Seems useless but is in fact USEFUL KNOWLEDGE***
Chocolate cake rises 30% less than a yellow or white cake. Keep this in mind as you fill your jars.

If you intend to ice the cakes I'd never fill them more than half way full. If its anything other than chocolate, it's safe to do about a third of a jar if not a smidge more.

- place all the jars on a cookie sheet or in a 13x9, without the lids, and bake for the amount of time your recipe calls for. Sometime it may take a few minutes less but maybe 5 minutes at the most.

-if you aren't icing put the lids and rings on shortly after you pull the jars out of the oven. In about 10-15 minutes you'll hear popping. The jars are sealing. It's what you want.

- if you are icing them with a cooked icing(ie coconut pecan frosting for German chocolate cake) or a glaze (honey bun cakes) then put the frosting on then put the lids on and you'll have the same effect.

- you can put a cool frosting on but be forewarned it will melt into the cake. If you let it cool a bit, put the frosting on and have the lids boiling before you put them on you should still achieve the popping lids when they seal.

You can also make brownies in a jar and pies in a jar. For brownies, youd bake them & put the lids on them like the cake. For pies, you line the jars with with dough(as best as possible), fill with pie filling, top with a piece of pie crust dough & cut a vent hole you cook it just like you would any other pies. (0:

There you have it. Cake(brownies or pies) in a jar. Rachel style. Sorry if it's lengthy or confusing.

The picture are of german cake in a jar(made by me), the one with white frosting was wild cherry Pepsi cake in a jar(also made by me) and the pies in a jar I found on google.