Marble Cake in a jar

With these delicious little cakes in your pantry you will always be prepared for surprise visits. The cakes can be stored for about three to six months and they will still be moist and very tasty. Plus they also make for a great thank-you gift or you can send this sweet surprise to your loved ones overseas or in all corners of the country.
Basically, you can bake any cake you want in a jar but I guess it would be best not to use any frosting if you really want to seal the jar. However if you just want to bake cake in a jar for the looks and eat it right away without sealing it you can of course decorate it any way you want to.
For this post I used my Marble Cake recipe which includes real dark chocolate instead of just cocoa powder as most other (German) recipes suggest and I also added a little espresso to give it a more grown-up flavour but if you want to serve the cake to the kiddies just leave out the espresso.

Also try my Lemon Poppy Seed Cake in a jar, which uses a normal muffin recipe!

 I used jars with a clip lock but you can just as well use twist-off jars.


You can also use this recipe (doubling all the quantities!) to bake a "regular" marble cake in a bundt cake or loaf pan.

You will get 4 preserving jars of about 150 ml /8.5 oz. content.


You will need:

• 125g (4.4 oz) unsalted butter
• 125g (4.4 oz) sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 250g (8.8 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 60g (2.1 oz) dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp cold espresso
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1. To sanitize the jars and rubber rings, place them in a large cooking pot and fill the pot with water until the jars are just about covered. Bring to the boil and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Leave the jars in the water until filling them with batter.

2. Preheat your oven to 170°C / about 330F.
For the chocolate batter, place the dark chocolate and the milk in a small sauce pan and let melt gently.
Prepare the jars for baking: Carefully lift them out of the pot using tongs. Using a pastry brush, generously grease the insides of the jars with butter.

3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light in colour. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour and baking powder and sift onto the egg mixture and beat well until all the ingredients are combined.
Evenly divide half of the batter (the other half will be turned into a chocolate-flavoured batter) between the preserving jars, filling them to about 1/4.
Add the chocolate milk, espresso and cocoa powder to the remaining half of the batter and give it a good mix. Again divide the chocolate batter evenly between the jars, scooping it onto the vanilla batter. Make sure the jars are only half full so the cake can rise and the lids can still be sealed. Using a spoon, swirl the two different batters so you get a marbled cake.
Bake unsealed at 170°C / 330F for about 20 to 25 minutes or until done. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and without any crumbs sticking to it.

4. The jars have to be sealed while still hot to make them last for about 3 to 6 months. Make sure to use gloves so you don't get any burns. Pull the jars out of the oven and using tongs pull the sanitized rubber rings out of the pot of hot water. Carefully apply the rubber ring to the jar's lid and seal with the clip lock.