Friday, February 17, 2012

Recipe Post // Cupcakes in a Jar



Next Tuesday evening I’m going to the Winery Tour concert being held in Cromwell – my favourite place in Central Otago. I’m so excited! Gin Wigmore is performing, I’ve liked her music for quite a while so I’m keen to see what she’s like live.

You aren’t able to take alcohol or drinks (except sealed water bottles I think) into the grounds, but you can take food. So I thought it would be a cool idea to take along a picnic! I’ve been wanting to try out the “cupcake in a jar” thing for a while and this is the perfect excuse.


I had an order of cupcakes due today for a customer (my business is Sequin Corner – come visit my Facebook page!) and I had some leftover, so I made a trial run. My favourite flavour is coffee and I just so happened to have a bottle of Kahlua lying around in the cupboard so I thought I’d make a yummy sauce to go with my cupcakes.


You will need;

A cupcake sized jar
Frosting of your choice
Baked cupcakes of your choice
Sauce of your choice

Coffee Frosting

115g Butter, softened
500g Icing Sugar
1 t Vanilla
60ml Instant Coffee (1/2 t coffee mixed with a dash of hot water, then made up to 60ml with cold water)
2 t Ground Coffee

Using an electric mixer – combine the butter, vanilla, coffee & half the icing sugar until creamy. Add the remaining icing sugar & beat until combined. Use a spatula to transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle.

**I found this recipe somewhere on the internet, but I can’t remember where sorry!

Kahula Sauce

125g Butter
1 C Castor Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 C Kahlua
1 t Cream

Melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat. Add the sugar & egg & whisk to combine. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is smooth & creamy and all the sugar is melted. Add in the Kahlua & cream & whisk to combine. Pour into a jug or bowl until ready for serving.

**Recipe from Simply Recipes – I altered the amount of Kahlua. 


1.    Take cupcake paper off, trim to fit in jar, & chop in 1/2. Place the cupcake 1/2 in the jar & pipe a layer of frosting over.
2.    Drizzle over a layer of the sauce. Repeat from the start – cake, frosting, sauce.
3.    I added 1 more cupcake half (my jar is tall) a layer of frosting & a final drizzle of sauce.
4.    The finished “Cupcake in a Jar”


These are so yummy! (and quite sweet!) Next time I might try layering one with custard and fruit, possibly to take to the concert. You could easily swap out the frosting and sauce I used and replace them with something else – ganache & caramel sauce, custard & pureed apples with cinnamon, raspberry puree & cream...the opportunities are endless! 

I made mine pretty by covering the tops with a paper doily tied on with string & threading a cake fork through the bit where you open the jar (I love my little fork with the piggy on it above!) you could just as easily attach a little plastic spoon or fork with some string or ribbon.  

Have you tried making cupcakes in a jar before? Or pies? I think it's a great picnic idea! Hope you all have a great weekend. 

12 comments:

  1. Wow, what a novel idea! I love cupcakes but have never heard of cupcakes in a jar. *adds to list of things to try*

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  2. Wow what a cool idea Kc! I love Cromwell too, my parents even lived there for a few years :) xx

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    1. Lucky them! :) I was going to study cooking up there, but ended up needing to do a 3 year course to get some funding, so that's why I ended up drafting first :)

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  3. Hmm these look so yummy, I love the addition of the sauce to them too - it adds some extra colour and looks so pretty! I've wanted to make pies in jars for soo long but you have to make them in the small mason jars and I've search England high and low and can't find any! but you can bet that when I do the treats in jars fun will begin!

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    1. I struggled to find them here too!! I found these ones at a supermarket in the end. I may have to give the pies in jars a go as well, they look so yummy! (Plus winter is coming up here)

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  4. What a lovely idea....they look so, so yummmy!

    Sophie x x

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  5. Oh yum, that looks so delicious! Perfect for a picnic. And less mess too!

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  6. these look fantastic! must remember to include in tomorrow's TiLT post!

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  7. i just pinned this under wedding ideas. i think they would be the perfect and fun dessert! thanks for the brilliant idea!

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  8. These are so perfect for indoor picnics considering the weather over here! Auckland is so unpredictable at the mo. And indoor picnics are so darn cute!

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