Favor Friday: Cupcake-In-A-Jar

Cupcakes-in-a-jar have been a popular trend across the blogosphere lately. It wasn’t until I saw this post, that I knew I had to try it out myself. I am a lover of bright colors and making rainbow cake is one of my favorite things to bake! For my cupcake-in-a-jar project, I decided to dye the cake to match the pretty Posies labels I chose to celebrate a toddler’s 3rd birthday. They turned out to be the cutest little party favors, perfect for guests to take home with them.

What You Need:

• 1 box Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix (made according to package instructions)
• 1 can vanilla frosting
• 1 box gel food coloring
• colored sprinkles
• small pint jars
• tissue paper & ribbon
• wooden spoons
• personalized labels & personalized tags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make sure your pint jars are clean and dry. Spray the inside of each jar with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Choose your colors. For my cupcakes, I chose three colors: blue, green, and yellow to match my labels. I find the gel food coloring to be the most vibrant, so that’s what I like to use. Divide your cake batter into 3 bowls (one for each color). Mix in your food coloring until you get your desired colors.

Spoon equal amounts of colored batter (yellow, blue, green) into each jar, filling just half way full. Place jars in a shallow baking dish and add about 1/2″ water to the baking dish. Place dish in oven and bake for about 40 minutes, or until cake is cooked through.

Remove jars and allow them to cool completely. If any of them have cake overflowing out of the jar, use a spoon to scoop it off the top. Spoon frosting into the top of each jar and decorate with sprinkles.

Packaging them for favors! To package my cakes for cute birthday favors I cut 5 1/2″ circles out of tissue paper to cover the lids of my jars. Next I tied the tissue in place with a matching ribbon and add a personalized label and tag.

More party favor ideas…

Rachel (158 Posts)

Rachel Beyer is an artist, designer and creative maker based in Portland, OR. She loves crafting, party planning and illustration. Rachel runs her own creative blog, Adventures In Making and also has a line of greeting cards, art prints and handmade goodies called Camp Smartypants.