Thursday, April 29, 2010

Preserve It . . . Canning Corner - Jar Cakes!

Jar Cakes are the Coolest Invention!
Who would have thought that you could bottle a
cake and it would last for 4-6 Months?!?
Cake Jars work best when made from scratch.
Heavy Cakes do the best!
Pictures are coming, my cakes are in the oven
as we speak!
You Will Need:
Clean Wide Mouth Pint Jars and Rings
New Lids
and Your Favorite Recipe!
(Avoid cakes with chunks like zuchinni or carrots.)
Use Crisco to grease the insides of the jars.
Use 1 cup of cake mix per jar.
Make sure jar rims and super clean so that the jars
will seal correctly.
Bake cakes in jars that have been placed
on a cookie sheet. (Bake WITHOUT Lids!)
Place lids on jars until immediately after baking.
Jars will be hot so make sure you use hot pads.
Lids should be placed in simmering water while cakes are
in the oven so they will be ready for the jars
when the cakes have finished baking.
Tighten lids with rings and listen for the ping.
A sealed jar lid will not move up and down after it has
been sealed correctly.  A sealed lid will be concave.
Let sit 12 to 24 hours and test the seal again.
Any unsealed jars should be put into the fridge,
and eaten within a few days.
(I'm sure it won't last longer than 1 hour!)
To eat cake . . . just use a knife to loosen the edges
and then the cake will slide right out.
Here are a couple of recipes for you to try:
Now you can have your cake and eat it too!

If you're looking for a Great Mother's Day Idea
this one would be MARVELOUS!
It's a . . .
A Jar Cake Swap
and
Mother's Day would be the perfect time
to give it a try! 
Each person will make a different cake jar recipe,
bring it baked and ready to Swap at a
Mother's Day Luncheon.
By the end of Lunch, you could have as many different
cakes as you have guests!
Sounds like a great idea to me, and I would love to have the
opportunity to try different recipes without having to
make them all myself first.
You could present each MOM with all of the
Jar Cake Recipes put together in a mini-photo album
that has been "Tricked-Out" with a little scrapbook paper
and ribbon!
(I'll see what I can do to help with that!)
I will the posting the second idea
I promised
yesterday . . . later today.
(Sorry, time just got away from me!)
Wednesday's Preparedness Project: 
A Portable Changing Pad!

8 comments:

JeSs said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this blog! So many ideas for me to do with my family! It is always nice to have more ideas for FHE night, Personal Preparedness, and just to expirement with! I am visiting Utah in June. Which Alphagraphics? Bountiful? Or can I order from TEXAS? my blog is littlejessicarene.blogspot.com, or e-mail is jessica.jewett@yahoo.com.

The David and Tricia Smith Family said...

Jess,
If you would like you can save a copy of the PDF and email it to a printer near you, they shouldn't have a problem printing the file because it is in a PDF format. The Alphagraphics in on 265 South Main in Bountiful. The number is: 801-295-2400. You could give them a call ahead of time and they can have the copies ready for you when you come to Utah!(They are Amazing . . . Love that Madison!)
Hope that helps,
Trish

Pam said...

I really enjoy reading this blog (you are so encouraging, creative and knowledgeable) and that's why I felt I should respond to to this post. Preserving a cake in a jar sounds like such a terrific idea, however several food researchers at major universities and food perservation safety experts have discouraged it. Here are a couple of links:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/questions/FAQ_canning.html#30

http://foodsafety.psu.edu/jar_bread.htm

The likelihood of botulism may be quite low, but I'm sure you'd like to know. I promise I'm not trying to ruin the post. :) Please keep your great ideas coming; I really love them!

The David and Tricia Smith Family said...

Pam,
Thank You so much! You're comment was perfect! I have done a lot of research on Jar Cakes and it is important for everyone to know that even though these recipes have been around for the eternities . . . the new testing has not. All of the old canning recipes have to go through the new testing to see if the canning instructions produce a safe and healthy product.
If you are worried, maybe you can still do the Cake Jar Swap and eat a cake a day until they're gone! I could make that kind of sacrifice if I have to!
Thank You Again for ever-so-gently correcting this ole' girl! The goal of this blog is to teach people about food storage, encourage to them to use it . . . and most importantly - live to talk about it!
Trish

Pam said...

Oh thank you for taking my comment in the spirit it was intended! :) I recently was looking for some homemade cake mixes that I could store (and use instead of the expensive store mixes). I found a few, but wondered if you'd had any experience with finding/using cake mixes...because it is always easier to face any emergency with a cake (as much a necessity as toilet paper I think we both agree).

The David and Tricia Smith Family said...

You're right on the cake and the toilet paper . . . I wouldn't want to go without either!
I have collected a lot of great cake and dessert mixes. Maybe I'll try to get them typed up before Mother's Day so that they can be put into a little book, then you can do a "Mixes and Recipe Swap" instead of a "Cake Jar Swap!"
Trish

Michelle said...

Tricia
Have a question about getting the cake out of the jar.. I know you said they slide right out but I was looking at a wide mouth and relized that the jar is still wider than the mouth...It just looks like it will not come out.. Going to give it a try soon,though. I do the cooking ideas for our RS and thought this might be a good idea.

Prepared Not Scared said...

Hey Michelle,
Just take a knife and go around the edges. The cakes usually shrink a little so they are not exactly the size of the base of the jar.
Once you do a quick slide with the knife, you should be good to go!
Trish