How to make mason jar treats:
What you will need: mason jars (wide-mouth pint size), saucepan, tongs, cake mix, decorations of your choice
I was first introduced to the idea of making cakes in mason jars when my friend was sending care packages to her husband overseas. I thought they were such a cute idea, and if done correctly, cake baked in mason jars can last for weeks!
To start, I thoroughly cleaned the mason jars and lids with hot water and a lot of soap and set them aside to dry. I used wide-mouth mason jars to make it easier to get the cake out, but you can also use regular jars if you plan to eat the cake right out of the jar.
While the jars were drying, I took out my recipe, preheated the oven, and prepared the cake! I baked a carrot cake for these jars, but any homemade or boxed cake or bread recipe should work. Once the cake batter was ready and the jars were completely dry, I sprayed the inside of each jar with PAM so that the cake wouldn’t stick to the walls, and dispersed the batter evenly across 8 jars. I filled each one about half full, but my cakes only filled about 3/4 of the jar when baked so feel free to add more batter if you have it!
I set my timer for 25 minutes, less than the time recommended in the recipe, so that I could check on the cakes to see how they were progressing. While the cakes were baking, I started to boil water in a saucepan on the stove. Once the water was boiling, I placed all of the inner discs of the lids into the water to sterilize them and to soften the wax sealant. I made sure the button on top of the discs was popped out before sterilizing them, as these pop in as the jars seal.
I continued to check on the cakes using toothpicks, and took them out of the oven when the toothpicks came out clean. Using tongs, I took a disc out of the saucepan, dried each side on a towel, and placed it on a mason jar, carefully screwing the lid on top using two oven mitts (the jar and lid will be hot!). I repeated this with each mason jar, and waited for them to seal. One by one, as the jars cooled, the tops of the jars popped in, sealing the cakes. Be patient – it takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the jars to cool enough to seal.
Once the cakes had sealed and were fully cooled, I decorated them! I wrapped bubble wrap around each jar and sent them to my boyfriend and his brother for their birthday. It was a great way to give them homemade treats from 3,000 miles away, and their friends even helped out and had cream cheese frosting ingredients ready in the fridge! Success!
