Baked in a Jar

I am now obsessed with the idea of baking things in jars, thanks to these tutorials...

Cake in a Jar - Angry Chicken

Pie in a Jar - Not Martha

Pie in a Jar - Bleubird

Pies in jars make great gifts because if you seal them up with they're hot, they're safe to freeze for a long time. They're even safe to mail to people (my friend sent some to her boyfriend in Afghanistan.) They're also a great way to enjoy delicious homemade pie more often. Rather than slaving away making a pie and having to eat it within a couple days, you can just thaw out a little jar of pie whenever you want a treat.

I have yet to attempt baking anything in a jar yet, but when I'm visiting my parents in a couple weeks, you bet I am swiping a bunch of mason jars from the basement!

I also want to make teacupcakes. Cupcakes baked in tea cups. So adorable. All you need to make these are oven-safe teacups.

[A little tip from me to you: When you're baking something like these cupcakes, or a custard, etc, in small ceramic dishes, place them on a baking sheet with a rim and fill it up with water. The water helps distribute the heat more evenly and will prevent your cupcakes (or custard, etc) from cooking too quickly on the outside before the heat gets to the inside. Just a little something I picked up at baking school.]

Although the overflowing, covered in lots of icing look is cute, I want to fill them up so they're just below the edge of the teacup when baked and then fill in the top centimeter with delicious glaze. It would look like they were filled with a liquid. Especially a chocolate glaze, it would look like coffee. I could even swirl two colors of glaze together, or make designs. So cute! I wish I could find a picture, but imagine a bunch of simple white teacups filled to the brim with pretty pale colors of sugary goodness.

Someday, when I have my own cupcake shop, my cupcakes shall be served in teacups covered in glaze. Mmmm.... margarita cupcakes topped with light green lime glaze, cherry cupcakes topped with light pink cherry glaze, chocolate chip cupcakes topped with chocolate glaze, chocolate and vanilla swirly cupcakes topped with chocolate and vanilla glaze swirled together... All in cute little teacups! Eeee! I'm squealing with excitement just thinking about how cute my own little cupcake cafe would be. =) Sigh... just one of my many dreams...