Cupcakes in a Jar

 Wow...it's been a while.  Many things have kept me from posting, the two top being a newborn (now 7 weeks old) and a broken laptop which made it impossible to download pictures from my camera.  I thought I would start blogging again with something fun!  Mallory turned 3 last month and we went with a Hello Kitty theme.  I've seen the "Cake in a Jar" post on Pinterest multiple times and thought it was a great idea.  I told my husband, and he brought up a good point.  If you made the cake in the jar, the icing will only be on top.  Well, after you eat the top layer of cake and icing, you'd have a lot of cake left over.  He suggest layers of icing and cake to make a better ratio.  Great idea!  I toyed with make a 9x13 sheet cake and then cutting out circles, or making cupcakes.  I went with the cupcakes, which were the perfect size for the small mason jars.

This is a super easy project, here's a step-by-step
1.  Buy mason jars
2.  Choose a cake.  I went with a vanilla box cake, divided the batter in two and dyed the other half pink.  Sticking with the Hello Kitty theme, I only used pink and white cake, but you could do more.
3.  I used a small muffin tin (12) and sprayed with Pam.  I filled the cupcake tins half way.
4.  While letting your cupcakes cool, make an icing.  I used butter cream icing and put in to a piping bag.
5.  Now start layering!  I did a white cupcake, a squirt of butter cream, a layer of sprinkles (repeat).

Layer the cupcakes with icing

 6.  I got two cupcakes and two layers of icing.  Make sure to stop at the top of the jar since you still have to put the lid on.

Add sprinkles to the top and you are done!

End product with labels on top, ribbon tied in a cute bow and fork attached for easy eating :)

7.  Tie on fork and make labels if desired.

I ended up taping the forks on to the jars since the ribbon didn't hold them on tightly.  I also found large sheets of blank sticker paper at a local office store and make my own "labels".

Two reasons why these were great:
1.  I don't say this a lot, but my husband was right.  It was a great ratio of icing to cake.
2.  They are "On the Go"  If your party runs short on time or kids start getting grumpy, give your guests this and see them on their way.  I used them as party favors, and you can re-use the glass!

Enjoy!