Cupcakes In A Jar: Baby Shower or Christmas Idea.

Tonight I was all ready to tell you about the Santa Parade our town had this past weekend. But I'm just not there yet. It's still November, my house is wonderfully un-decorated and I'm enjoying a 'down' week from the holidays. But starting next week, bring on the festivities.

So let us back track a couple of weekends. Carla's baby shower was so much fun to help organize.  Mainly, because I've been hoping/looking/waiting for a reason to make cupcakes-in-a-jar. This is no new invention in the world of cuteness but I'm a bit of late bloomer and am just now jumping on board.

I googled high and low to see if there was a 'right' way to make cupcakes-in-a-jar. For the record, there is not. It's anything goes. Let your creativity run wild. I did notice a definite lack of good tutorials on how to do it. Excuse me, but not all of us are domestically inclined. Some of us need exact directions. 

Here it goes.

250ml Mason jars hold one normal size cupcake perfectly. At the very least, you'll need mason jars, lids, cupcake ingredients, frosting, a piping bag and a decorative tip. If you're feeling really artsy-craftsy grab some cute fabric, rope/string/ribbon, and disposable spoons. Or stickers. Or none of it. 

Like I said, anything goes.

But back to what I did.

Make the cupcakes. A box mix will work just fine. Don't be ashamed. Duncan Hines knows whats up.

Peel off the liners and carefully break the cupcakes in half. Set the tops aside.

This would be a good time to recruit some help. Husband, child, roommate, elf, imaginary friend, whoever. 

Drop the bottoms into the jar. 

Next, make a batch of icing. Go ahead, get out your mixer and make it from scratch. Don't be lazy. 

I decided to use two different colors of icing; pink and blue because we don't know if Carla is having a boy or a girl. Because I'm voting for a girl, I put a layer of pink frosting down first using a piping bag and decorative tip. (Wilton #2 I think?)

On top of the frosting went the cupcake tops. Recruit your helper to do this...

Because you're busy making a second batch of frosting. There is no such thing as too much frosting. This time I dyed it blue and piped it on top in the same manner as before.

But wouldn't it be cute to do red and green frosting for the holidays? 

Oh! Or dye the batter to have red and green cupcakes with white frosting! Oh! Or chocolate!

Finally, I suckered The Canadian into sprinkling a few sprinkles on top. Are these not the prettiest sprinkles ever?

Oh! You could put those pretty silver ball sprinkles on Christmas cupcakes in a jar!

So far, so good. You could even stop here and call it a day.

But I wasn't done yet. I found cute fabric (18x18 precut square for $2 at Walmart) that was gender neutral and adorable with it's cute owls. Cutting the fabric into 4x4 inch squares worked perfectly to cover the top of each jar.

I finished it off with simple string (that I found in the junk drawer) to hold a plastic spoon and a cute tag that I printed and hole punched. 

Oh! You could write cute Christmas song lyrics and attach it to holiday cupcakes in a jar!

Yes, I think that is exactly what my mailman would like for Christmas. Except he walks the streets and doesn't have a fancy backwards-driving mail truck. So maybe a jar o cupcake might weigh too much. Or he could just eat it as he walks. It does come with a spoon and everything. Yup, I think he will be will to bear the weight.

Happy cupcake-in-a-jar making!

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Today I am thankful for... all the kitchen tools, utensils and lessons I inherited from my Grandpa.

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Workout: Cardio - (I almost puked even though it was only 20 minutes) 20 minutes of some crazy TM workout I found on Pinterest. I thought I was going to die. I'm totally doing it again tomorrow. If I survive I'll give you the specifics tomorrow.