Jar Cakes My Oh My

I had all my baking done on the 21st. Or so I thought. Then an email with a link to these popped into my inbox from my friend. GASP. JAR CAKES. Pretty, little jar cakes!
I still had shopping, wrapping and packing for my trip to Chicago, but I had to fit these in. MY OH MY OH MY. They are cute!
They made perfect little gifts for the girls at the office and for my kiddos' stockings.

But before I get to the cakes, remember I promised you a picture of me in feline glasses??? This was taken MANY Yuletides ago. Sometime before the first lunar landing. For you rugrats under 30, you probably have no idea when that was, do you? Hmmm?

I think I was eight years old here. I was very popular due to my cool specs. My brother, he wasn't so cool, due to the scab on the side of his nose. And the way he tried to attack me with an exacto knife while my mom was at the hairdresser getting her hair french twisted. . Or maybe that's leftover breakfast on his face. He was kind of a messy kid. Love ya, Anson.

Christmas of '65, peeps. (Did you get Peeps in your stocking? I did. Personally, I think moose Peeps are sacrilegious.) I know that it was 1965 because my little sister was born December of '64 (oops just spilled the beans on her age - happy 45th kiddo!) and she's still suckin' on a bottle here (and sharing my room, by the way. Shouldn't that be against the law? My mom making me share my 'Crib'with a one year old whose still in her crib?? The injustice, really.) and soon to be stealing all my Barbies, I'm sure.

Sorry. On to the jar cakes :-)


Lisa found these cakes on Angry Chicken. Isn't that just a great name for a blog? Especially considering my affection for chickens. She used Pumpkin Spice cake but I decided to try a different recipe posted here at Eggplant. WARNING: If you are allergic to red dye, don't eat this. Holy crap. There's enough red dye to touch up Lucy's roots, even if she is dead. Really, it called for TWO TABLESPOONS of red food coloring. I used two teaspoons and it was plenty.
I tried both jar prep methods: greasing and flouring and just greasing. Both worked fine and if you plan to eat them in the jar, then no need to worry about sliding them out. Neither stuck.

You can see in the finished product that the greased and floured remains with the white dusting. It looks fine either way. Because its winter, it actually looked snowy with the flour dusting left around the sides. I filled the jars about 1/3 to 1/2 full. It leaves enough headroom for frosting that way.
If you are not going to frost, you can fill 2/3 full, then you can just put the lids on after they come out of the oven to let the moisture build up from the heat inside. You get a moist layer on top which would be wonderful with any chocolate cake recipe. You can use boxed cakes for this too. If you do plan to frost then let cool completely. Frost and then close up. These don't have a shelf life like canning. You must eat these like any other cake. A few days on the counter is fine but then they should go in fridge. It is cream cheese frosting after all.

Aren't they beautiful? And the Red Velvet Cake is so yummy. Red Velvet has cocoa and buttermilk in it and the flavor is very comforting. Like a nice cup of cocoa. Not a heavy chocolate flavor. I used regular unbleached flour but in the future I may use cake flour. These were very dense but held up well to frosting. Be sure to bake at about 325. No higher than 350.

Happy New Year!!