Saturday, February 9, 2013

watercolors and jar cake

It was fun and it was exhausting, but for the first time I made Valentines with my 6 year old and my 2 year old. Now that G Boy can actually help it seemed like a project worth doing. I didn't have too much of a plan when I started but I knew I'd need color so I hoarded the kids' water color pictures for the last week. I ended up cutting them up into heart appliques (free hand). And for G Boy's teacher we stepped it up and made a jar cake! I made an absolute mess out of one box of lemon cake but I learned how to jar cake and I have one fabulous Teacher gift....as long as she likes lemon frosting.


I looked up a few pictures on Pinterest but most of the links sent me nowhere so I experimented! I baked a few small cakes in jars and then a flat cake to cut and layer in a clean jar. Process #2 was the winner. When you bake the cake right in the jar it's easy but you can't layer it and it pulls away from the sides and looks pretty messy. It still taste fabulous though. Here's what I did:

Bake a box cake or your own recipe 
Let your sheet cake cool
Take the tin from a wide mouth mason lid and lay it on cake layer
 (You can add a dab of frosting to make it stick if needed)
 Cut around it with a knife 
Scoop it out and put on a plate
Trim the sides just a bit to shrink, you don't have to be perfect
It should slide right into your jar
Add a frosting layer
Repeat cake and frosting layers
Cap and decorate.

I added my frosting layer by putting store-bought topping in a ziplock bag and nipping off the corner to make a disposable pastry bag. My decor choice was chevron tape from Paper Source and red bakers twine. Now that was doable!