Cake in a Jar Valentine {Printable}

A twitter friend, @LittleBirdyMe, shared her valentine’s cake in a jar project.  I instantly knew this would be the perfect treat for my coworkers.  Plus, I have dozens of clean baby food jars screaming for a project like this.

To keep it simple, I picked up a red velvet cake mix and cream cheese frosting.  I made the red velvet mix into a sheet cake in a 9 x 13 inch pan.  After the cake cooled completely, I cut into small cubes to layer in the jars.  I made a layer of cake in the bottom of the jar.  I put the cream cheese frosting in my pastry bag and piped a layer of frosting on top of the first cake layer.  Then I added more red velvet cake cubes, topped of by a final layer of the cream cheese frosting.

The baby food jar lids were in need of a little makeover.  I used Rustoleum satin nickel spray paint to cover all the lids.  To keep it food safe, I put the lids on a drop cloth and painted only the outside of the lid.  The inside of the lid is paint free.  The satin nickel made the lids amazingly sparkly.

I made cute little labels to fit the top of the jars.  They have a spot for writing to/from.  To fit the top of the lid, I made them 1.5 inch circles.  I printed them on full page sticker paper.  I cut mine by hand, trimming just inside the faint grey circle on the printout.  They can also be punched with a 1.5″ round craft punch. The labels are available as a free printable by clicking here.  There are 30 labels per sheet; 15 in red and 15 in aqua.

To identify the contents, I used a craft punch and 1/8″ hole punch to make tiny tags.  I wrote “red velvet cake” on the tags and tied them around the neck of the jar with jute twine.

The finished product is adorable and delicious.  I am so glad I finally found a good use for all those baby food jars.  I cannot wait to pass these out at work!