Okay.  Get to ready to be amazed.  You might want to take a seat if you are not sitting down already.

I have four little words that will change your life.  Ready?

Cake.  In.  A.  Jar.

Yea… I know.  Cake.  Jar.  Huh?  What?

But it really is that simple.  You put cake batter in a jar and make the cake in the jar.  I made these sweet little novelties for Valentine’s Day and am just now getting around to posting about it.  Because some of my time is actually spent looking after my little ones, doing laundry, and all that other mom and wife business that I do.  But I actually made these again today, which prompted the post about them.  We were gifting dinner tonight and thought this might be a good gift too.  Try as I might, I could not get my little jars of goodness to look at all like the gorgeous one pictured above.  So none of my own pics on this one.  I did revise the recipe a bit, since I felt like a 16 ounce jar of dessert seemed a bit…shall we say…plentiful.  I am not saying that I couldn’t eat an entire pound of dessert because I am quite sure that I could.  But I am trying not to gain twenty pounds by Easter so I used smaller jars half-pint jars in place of the pint jars on the original recipe.  You could easily use the pint jars if you prefer and they are actually a bit easier to pretty up with ribbon and a tag.  Half-pints worked but didn’t have that nice neck on them like the pint size one pictured above.  You can even do these in a coffee mug.  I never dreamed I would bake cake in my microwave but alas, I have done it.  Twice.  Thank you to my sweet friend Beth for sharing the link with me and changing my microwave forever.  Astounding.

I encourage you to play around with this to make your own personalized version.  For a fun cake twist, I might even serve them at our next birthday party.  Mmmm…

Cake In A Jar

Adapted from Red Velvet Nutella Cake in a Jar posted on Babble by Brooke McLay

• 1 box chocolate cake mix, prepared according to package directions
• 1 jar of Nutella
• 1 jar cream cheese frosting
• 6 to 8 half-pint-sized canning jars

Thoroughly wash and dry the inside of each canning jar. Spray the inside of each jar thoroughly with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Prepare cake batter according to package directions.  Spoon about 1/2 cup of cake batter into each jar.  Cook one jar at a time in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until the cake is cooked through.  I did two 30 second intervals, allowing for it to rest a bit in between and then another 20 seconds.  You might need to play around with it a bit because it will depend on your microwave.  Allow jars to cool for a few minutes (caution: they will be HOT), then scoop the top half of cake from the jar. Spoon a tablespoon or so of Nutella into the center of the jar, top with a dollop of cream cheese frosting, then replace the top half of the cake back in the jar, add another layer of Nutella, then enough frosting to fill the rest of the jar.

Serve immediately or cover with a lid and store in the fridge or pop into the mail & surprise someone you love! Cakes should stay fresh in the fridge for up to 5 days, and can be mailed so long as they are topped with a canning jar lid and arrive at their final destination within 3 days.

Photo courtesy of Brooke McLay from Babble.com