Cake In A Jar - Yogurt And Brown Sugar Cake from Cannelle et Vanille

The Manger is up and lighted.

So is the tree with the ornaments.

Even the ginger bread house is made and devoured!

The dangling roof lights from last year were never taken out and so turning those on was easy as usual:-) Hey, you do what you can to make life easier.

Now it is time to bake some gifts and goodies, mainly the cake.  Unfortunately having a crazy time at work with projects moving at the speed of light does not conduce to relaxed planning at home for the holidays. Instead you develop brain fatigue at the prospect of working through the holidays leading to inertia and apathy. OK it is not that bad only pretty close. Luckily squeals of laughter from the little ones jumping in joy at the thought of the upcoming holidays (already here) and of getting gifts from Santa and everyone else can just perk you up. Why the activities can even help to relax and restart the overworked brain! Since the fruits were not bought they didn't get macerated and the fruit cake simply cannot be made this year. That is when I remembered the cakes in a jar that we had sent out as gifts to family in the early years of our marriage. They were apparently a success unless the recipients were being polite out of love:-).

Those were the early years of food blogging. Google had not made its appearance, yet the truly initiated were already making their mark on the net. When my search for Christmas gifts yielded these pages (I am so glad I was able to find them intact again now, years later!) I was energized. Had a hard time finding the canning jars (also called mason jars) then but now I see them everywhere. In grocery stores as well as in Target. I made brownies and banana nut bread then but wanted to try something different and more Christmassy this time.

Yogurt And Brown Sugar Sponge Cake from cannelle et vanille

When one of my colleagues came back from a trip to France, we were all given the delightful French Macarons. Now, they are not the thick heavy macaroons  that we are used to but melt in your mouth angelic textured pieces of sheer delight!  cannelle et vanille was brought to my attention by the colleague as a good site for homemade french macarons with detailed instructions. The recipe index at the home page makes it very easy to navigate. The pictures are so awesome that I couldn't take my eyes off of the site for the longest time. I hope I will get to make those macarons some day (I hear Starbucks sells some in their stores) but didn't want to try this for the Christmas baking. The name of this recipe is what caught me and the 'yogurt and brown sugar cake' sans the ice cream  from there is what I made as it sounded yummy and doable. I just had to get muscavado sugar from amazon. Other than that I had all the ingredients. So made them in the jars and they were delicious and light as hoped.

In The Mix
pint sized canning jars/lids - 5 (used narrow mouthed for this cake)
shortening - 2 tbsp or as needed
check here for gram conversion

butter  - 170 grams/11.942 tbsp ( keep at room temp for some time before making the batter)
brown sugar - 150 grams/10.537 tbsp (to soften this, keep covered with a wet paper towel for a while)
granulated white sugar - 85 grams/5.971 tbsp
muscavado sugar - 50 grams / 3.512 tbsp
vanilla extract - 1 tsp
eggs - 2
yogurt - 180 grams/12.645 tbsp
all purpose flour - 180 grams/12.645 tbsp
baking powder - 4 grams/0.843 tsp
zest from 1 lemon

How To Do

Sterilize the jars and lids by boiling in water for about 15 minutes.
Take out the jars and let dry.

Spread melted shortening to cover the insides making sure to keep the lip clean.
Keep the lids in the warm water till you are ready to put them onto the jars.

 Preheat oven to 350C.

Beat the butter, brown sugar, white sugar and muscavado sugar together for about 2 minutes. If you find that the muscavado sugar does not completely get broken, this is just fine and even desired. Makes for a crunchy bite in the cake as the site suggests.  Add lemon zest and vanilla extract and mix well together. Add the eggs one at a time and then add the yogurt. Time to add the flour and baking powder. Both can be sifted together for a good mix.

Checkout my new digital scale. I had bought this for my HMom before she left last year and meant to get one for myself based on all the awesome reviews. Got it at last and it is all that and more. Love it.

Pour the batter to a little over half of the jars. Place on a cookie sheet to balance the jars and keep in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Insert a skewer in the center to see if done. Turn off the oven, but keep the jars inside.

Now that the jars are ready, take out the lids and screw tops and keep on a plate. No need for this to dry out. Take the jars out one at a time from the oven, place the lid onto the jar and screw on with reasonable tightness. Set aside for the jars to self seal. The heat and moisture will help with the sealing process. When the jars are completely cooled, press the center of the lids. If they don't move up or down, they are vacuum sealed. You will most likely hear a gentle popping sound when this happens.  If the lid moves up and down, then there is no seal and just use as you would a regular cake. The sealed cakes are perfect for mailing and have been known to keep fresh and moist for up to 6 months when stored in a cool, dark place. They never last this long anyway so I have not experienced the longevity personally. Can vouch for 3-4 weeks for sure.

Once cooled, decorate to your heart's content. You can make little notes and thread on a ribbon tied to the jar. Little pieces of fabric cut as 10" squares or circles will add to the festive look. This time we printed out little index cards and punched holes on them to thread. We had greetings from the 4 of us as well as a link to the original recipe site and the name of the cake on it. Lovingly homemade yet with a nice professional touch I'd say. If that is too much, just put a little circular festive label on the top with the cake's name handwritten on it. We tasted some ourselves a few days later and the cake stayed as fresh and moist as the day it was made!

For these type of narrow jars, use a knife to slice inside and slide out the pieces.