Cheesecake in a jar!

                                         I made these this past week! Oh my goodness were they good. I have made this recipe before, but in a larger single cake form. I love making single serving jar cakes. They are so cute and easy to eat. Too easy to eat unfortunately. All that is going to stop this week though. It's time to crack down and start eating healthier. I love to bake so much though. I just won't be doing it as often. It's good for us, it's good for us.....oh did you hear that sorry I have to keep telling myself this. Anyway here's the recipe. You will thank me if you try it. Not my recipe, don't remember the original source ( sorry) but it's very GOOD!

Golden Oreo Cheesecake

28 Golden Oreos ( I use the cheapo store brand and still tastes great)
3 Tbs. melted butter
about 24 wrapped caramels
1 Tbs. water
2 packages cream cheese
1 C marshmallow fluff
1 egg

               Preheat oven to 350. Crush 18 cookies and mix with melted butter. Press mixture firmly into bottom of pan to make crust. Bake for 10 mins. Cool 10-15 minutes. Unwrap caramels and place in microwave safe bowl with water. Now coarsely chop remaining 10 cookies and set aside.

               With mixer beat together cream cheese and marshmallow fluff on medium speed and scrape sides of bowl. Add egg and mix about 30 sec. more. Stir in chopped cookies. Pour mixture onto crust in pan.
                 Melt caramels and water in microwave for 30 seconds then stir and continue to microwave 30 sec. more. When melted drop by spoonfuls over batter in pan. Take a knife and swirl caramel mixture through batter. Bake 20-25 minutes  or until center is set. Cool 20 minutes then refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours.  YUMMY!

 To make in jars, just divide and place ingredients in jars and of course bake a shorter time. Mine took about 13 minutes to bake.

                                          They were really good. The full size cake is good, too. Let me if you try one. The little jars just make the servings more fun I think. Have a sweet day!

I love these cakes in a jar!

                        The last one were so good I decided to make some more. These were pineapple coconut. I had never seen pineapple cake mix before. Have you? Well let me tell you,  YUMMY! I mixed the cake mix according to the instructions, but added 1 can crushed pineapple and about 3/4 of a cup of sweetened coconut flakes. I made my own vanilla butter cream icing. I added some toasted coconut on top to finish them off. I have to say we loved them. I can't wait to try some other flavor. I think I need more jars though! You have to try some! let me know! Have a sweet day

Pumpkin Jar Cakes...Cupcakes in a jar

I finally made some jar cakes or cupcakes in a jar. I just love the idea of individual versions of desserts. I think jar cupcakes are sooo cute. I have plans for some jar pies and jar cheesecakes too. These turned out way better than I imagined they would. You can use just about any cake recipe you want to, but with it being fall and all I had to go with something pumpkin.   Here's my recipe:

1 box of Spice cake mix  ( I used Duncan Hines )
1 box of instant pumpkin spice pudding
1 can 100% pumpkin ( I used Libby's )
2 eggs
1/3 C of oil ( veg. oil )

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well. Fill jars 1/3 full. Too full and not enough room for icing. Bake for about 24 minutes. I only had 12 jars to use so I had extra batter that I mixed with oatmeal and made cookies. ( Baked 350 for about 12 minutes). The cookies were not as good as the cakes. I need more jars!

I made my own maple icing for the cakes.

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon maple flavoring

Add sugar and butter to mixing bowl and mix for about 5 minutes then add maple flavoring , mix another minute then it's done. I would recommend doubling the ingredients for more icing. Lots of icing is always good.

If you fill the jars too full with batter you might not have enough room for icing. Although they would still be good, everything is better with icing! I think they turned out pretty cute. Not to mention yummy. These would make really cute little gifts for teachers, neighbors, or family.

Mine could have used a little more icing.  Try some and let me know how yours turn out.
Have a sweet day!

Some DIY gifts

At this time of year there are many gift giving opportunities. We always like to show our appreciation for The Boy's ( my son ) teachers. This means a few extra gifts. He has 3 reagular teachers he sees every day, 3 specials ( art music gym ) teachers, 1 gifted class teacher, a principal, and 1 very special school secretary. This can add up quick, so we try to keep the gifts small. So this is where the diy in me steps in. Here are a few gifts I made for them. I think that the pictures are pretty self explanitory(sp). The first picture shows the almost finished projects. I am going to fill these jars with candy. I was trying to find some candy that is wrapped in black wrappers to show through the Mickey outline, not having much luck so far, any suggestions?

Having some picture issues at the moment.

supply list

Jar

contact paper

frosted spray paint

outline image

ribbon of choice

Start with a clean jar. Decide what image you would like your "window" to be. Trace the image onto the contact paper. Cut out the image and firmly place it on the jar where you want it.

Spray the jar with the frosted paint. After waiting the appropriate drying time, which varies per manufacturer, carefully peel off the contact paper. I let mine dry for 24 hours after removing contact paper before I tied the ribbon on. I think they came out pretty cute. Next i will fill them with some candy and there you go. I had everything here on hand so it that was even better. let's see if my pictures will post now. Tell me what you think of this project. Easy and fun!