Spice Cupcakes In A Jar

Some of the ingredients I used

Yes, You read that correctly... Cupcakes in a jar. I saw this on the cooking channel, and I just thought it looked so cool... so I tried it for my recipe for the week. This was basically just a tasty experiment.

 The first thing that happened was Mom and I discussed, the kind of frosting that would be in between the cupcake layers. We decided instead of having frosting in between the layers plus on top, I should do a filling and a frosting. Why? Mom pointed out that just frosting in between the cupcakes would be too sweet, a lighter filling would be nicer... plus it was an opportunity to add a different dimension to the cupcakes.

I used a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix. I simply followed the directions on the box, poured the batter into regular sized cupcake pan (jumbo cupcakes would not have fit into the jars I had on hand.) After letting the cupcakes cool a little, I started making the filling. The filling has three ingredients... 8oz cream cheese, 1 tsp vanilla and about 1/4 cup powered sugar (that part really depends on how sweet you would like it).

You cream the cream cheese for about 3 minutes and then you add the vanilla and powered sugar. After about a minute of beating it, taste it to determined if you want to put more powered sugar or not.

The jar I used

Now comes the fun part (some assembly required!) I cut the cupcakes in half. In each jar there were three halves. Put one half in the jar and put some filling on it, then add the next half and some more filling on that. And then add the third half and don't put any filling on it because the frosting will be the final layer. And if you, by the way, have 3 or 4 cupcakes that can't be put into  a jar because you either don't have enough jars, or you run out of filling, they make great snacks and practice for your piping/creativity skills :)

My leftover cupcakes, They have some leftover frosting to top them off

Once I was done with building the layers, I made the frosting. The frosting has four ingredients... 1 cup pure pumpkin, 1 tsp Cinnamon, 11/2 cup heavy cream, and 1 to 2 cups powered sugar (once again its to taste). The first thing you do is  whip the heavy cream as if you're making whipped cream. While the heavy cream is whipping, mix the pumpkin and cinnamon. Once the heavy cream is to the whipped cream consistency, add the pumpkin mix. After that is combined (about 2 minutes) and 1 cup of powered sugar. Once again taste it to see if you want more powered sugar.

 

The next part is frosting the cupcakes in the jars. You can use a spoon to plop it on top or you can cut the corner of a Zip-Loc bag , put some frosting in it and frost the cupcakes that way. I did the latter after doing the former for the filling... using the bag is much easier than using a spoon... and it looks neater too. When you're done, they have to go in the fridge  because they have uncooked cream cheese and whipping cream.

In the fridge

The taste test... this reminds me of a seasonal recipe. The frosting does in fact taste like pumpkin flavored whipped cream, which for the record, is really good! The filling is good too, not too sweet, but not too cream cheese-like. But the whole cupcake together... well, it was like something was missing. Maybe they were too light or didn't have any zing. 

Overall: I like the whole cupcake in the jar thing, but the cupcake plus the whipped cream frosting plus the filling didn't really work together, at least in my opinion. However, I like the frosting and filling and I think they would be good with a different cupcake. Perhaps I will try this filling with a traditional frosting. And maybe add some cranberries to it... I do love pumpkin and cranberries together! This recipe was a 4 out of 5.

Buffy (left) and Einstein (right) checking it out.

P.S. Mom pointed out that the problem with the frosting is that the longer it is in the fridge, on the cupcake, it might make the cupcake more moist than usual.