The Pinspiration Project: CAKE IN A JAR

Hello! How about this new blog design?! What do you think? I am really digging it! It is more appealing and put together than that whole "blog design" (I use quotes because let's face it, that wasn't a blog design) I attempted to use a few months back. Like I said previously, Fortune Favors the Brave has a slammin good deal on blog design. She did this whole thing, along with some buttons, for $20! I told her what I wanted and she created it. Even when I complained that the title font color wasn't "minty" enough, she said no problem and fixed it until it was juuuust right. Check her out!

Moving along..





I started thinking about KC's birthday a couple of weeks ago, because I needed to figure out what to send him for his birthday in Afghanistan. KC hates when you mention his birthday. I haven't been able to figure out why, but it's just something he's not stoked on. Doesn't mean I'm not going to be stoked on it :-) Last year we went to this wonderful restaurant in Seattle called The Purple Cafe . They have a great atmosphere. Dark and modern with an amazing spiral staircase that wraps around a circular wine cellar. We had a great bottle of red wine, and yummy food. I made KC a cake and we had that when we got home from dinner. He never had a birthday cake baked for him. I couldn't even believe it. He was so excited for the one I baked up. We even turned down free birthday dessert at Purple so that we could enjoy my Martha Stewart cake.
When I got to thinking about what to send him this year, I knew I wanted it to be cake. For his whole team. I had NO idea how I would even accomplish this though. You can't just send a cake to Afghanistan and expect it to be edible by the time it arrives two weeks later. I scoured the internet and of course Pinterest saved the day. CAKE IN A JAR.

After the cakes were baked and cooled

 

This is a SUPER easy baking project to take on. No complicated cake recipe. 
1.You literally take a box cake (of your choosing) preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2.Whip it up according to the instructions (a few eggs, some oil),
3.Pour the batter into your mason jars to fill them up about half full.
4.Slide your jars into the oven and leave them there for 30-35 minutes until a tooth pick (you may want to use a wood skewer stick like I did) comes out clean.
When your cakes are almost done boil up some water and throw your mason jar lids in the boiling water. As the cakes are completed, take one jar out at a time and place a lid on it, then screw the outer ring on.When the cakes are all cooled off the lid shouldn't flex when you put pressure on it with your finger. That's when you know it's sealed and good to go!

This is the cake in a jar 1.5 weeks after it was baked and sealed. I wanted to do a test run before I sent a dozen or so jars to Afghanistan. I would feel horrible if they were all gross and moldy when they opened them! I taste tested them and they were pretty good. A little dry at first, but when you get in deeper it gets better. Especially when you put frosting on them. Definitely military care package approved. I'll get the official seal of approval in a couple weeks (fingers crossed) when they reach the soldiers.