Sending fresh birthday cake to a land far far away!

So here's an awesome way to surprise your sweetie while he's away for his birthday (or any other special event)...jar cake! I ran across this while brainstorming on what I could do for P's birthday on allrecipes.com. I decided to give it a shot and was not disappointed and P was very surprised. Of course the way I planned on him getting it didn't turn out as planned...but that's a whole other story. (Thanks anyway B!)


Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package cake mix
• 8 (my batch really only made 6) straight-sided wide-mouth pint canning jars with lids and rings

Directions:

1. Prepare the cake according to package instructions, or use any cake recipe.
2. In pint size, straight-sided wide-mouth jars, put 1 cup of batter in each greased jar. Make sure to keep the rims of the jars clean. Put in preheated oven 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place jars on a cookie sheet to keep from tipping over while baking.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
4. While they are baking, have your jar lids boiling in a pan of water. When the cake is done, take one jar out at a time and add the hot lid and screw on your jar ring and let set and cool.
5. It will seal as it cools. Place the jars on the counter and listen for them to 'ping' as they seal. If you miss the 'ping', wait until they are completely cool and press on the top of the lid. If it doesn't move at all, it's sealed.
6. After it cools it will pull away from the jar and when you are ready to eat, open and pop out the cake and enjoy.
7. Unsealed jars should be stored in the refrigerator and eaten within 2 weeks. Sealed jars may be stored in a freezer.

I then included a container of frosting, napkins, forks, and knives. You might also consider throwing in a bottle opener, although P ended up using a key to pry open the jar. I used a priority box and the cake all arrived in less than a week. I kept a jar of cake for myself so I could see how well it fared (as well as eat it on P's birthday--of course!). The cake tasted great and was light and fluffy. I really had no idea what to expect and was quite impressed overall.

So now you know how I did it!