These perfect little cakes in a jar are just right for gifting. This clever idea makes a pretty present. Of course, we won’t tell if you keep one or two for yourself.
The idea of a jar cake is to bake a little cake inside a jar. I admit that these aren’t the easiest to eat, since you have to sort of dig at the cake, but they are very pretty and will keep well on a shelf for a long time. This makes them ideal for gifts, especially ones that you mail, provided that you pad the glass jars before shipping them.
You can adapt almost any quick bread or cake recipe into a jar cake. The secret is to make sure that you never overfill your batter. A recipe with about 3 1/3 cups of flour usually fills eight 1-pint canning jars. Each jar should be filled with one level cup of batter. You’ll want to get the wide mouth jars to make it easy to fill the jars with batter and to eat your cake afterward.
Prepare the jars by washing them with hot soapy water, then let them drain, dry and cool before filling. Grease the insides of the jars. This is very important. It will allow most quick breads or cakes to slip right out when it is time to eat them.
When you bake your cake, you’ll be baking them right in the jar. Set the temperature to no more than 325 degrees. You’ll usually bake for 40 minutes.
As you are baking your cake in the oven, you’ll also want to sterilize and heat the jar lids. This will also prevent the glass from cracking as it might if it came in contact with a cold lid. Boil some water, remove it from the heat and place your jar lids in the water. You should do this about 10 minutes before your cakes are done.
When the cake is done, carefully remove the jars one at a time, put the lids and the rings in place and screw the lids closed. Put the jars on a wire rack to cool then don’t disturb them. You’ll hear the lids pop as they seal themselves.
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