Fruity Pebbles & Cocoa Pebbles Cake in a Jar

Guys, I’m so excited to show you this project because 1) it’s delish and 2) it’s so so stylin’. One thing I love doing for small gifts for people is baking cake in jars. It’s easier than you think, and you automatically have a means for transporting/gifting the cake when you’re finished. Tie off with a bow, a tag, and a spoon, and you’re done!

Today I’ve created two special recipes for Post Foods, and they both involve the two best cereals for making desserts: Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles. (Don’t believe me? Try either of these on a donut, cupcake, or tart frozen yogurt.)

Fact: These are the two best cereals for making desserts with.

First, the recipe for Fruity Pebbles cake. And yes—it has Fruity Pebbles in it! Kinda like confetti cake. (We’ll use the Fruity Pebbles as well for garnish later.)

FRUITY PEBBLES CAKE BATTER
Makes enough batter for 6 cake jars.

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup Fruity Pebbles

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a larger bowl, beat the butter at a high speed, and gradually beat in the sugar. Then, beat in the egg whites.
4. Now you will gradually be adding the dry mixture and the milk to the butter-sugar-egg mixture. To do this, alternate mixing in some of the dry mixture, followed by some milk, followed by some dry mixture… You get the picture. Do that until you’ve incorporated the dry mixture and the milk completely. Just don’t over-mix here.
5. Finish by incorporating the vanilla and Fruity Pebbles.

 

Alright, now it’s time for the Cocoa Pebbles cake…

COCOA PEBBLES CAKE BATTER
Makes enough batter for 6–8 cake jars.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup natural cocoa*
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup boiling water**
• 1/2 cup Cocoa Pebbles

* Be sure not to substitute in dutch process cocoa here. Natural cocoa is acidic, and you need something acidic to react with the baking soda in this recipe. Dutch process cocoa has been neutralized.
** This will help bring out the flavor of the cocoa. I recommend boiling more than enough water first and then measuring; otherwise you could lose water to evaporation.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a larger bowl, beat the oil and sugar together at a gradually increasing high speed. Then, beat in the egg eggs.
4. Gradually add the dry mixture to the oil-sugar-egg mixture. Do this on a slower speed so that you don’t over-mix here.
5. Finish by incorporating the vanilla, boiling water, and Cocoa Pebbles.

BAKING THE CAKE IN JARS

1. For each batch of batter, fill 6 (or 6–8, in the case of the Cocoa Pebbles cake batter) 12-oz. mason jars somewhere between 1/3 and halfway with batter—nothing beyond that though because then you won’t have room for frosting and garnish.
2. Set your jars in a cake pan or baking dish—give them some breathing room here—and add some water to the bottom of the pan or dish. This creates a hot water bath that helps prevent the glass from breaking in the oven.
3. Bake at 350°F for 35 to 45 minutes. Use a skewer to test for doneness. I would start checking at 35 minutes and go from there, because for me the Cocoa Pebbles cake baked faster than the Fruity Pebbles cake.
4. Remove the jars from the oven and let them cool completely.

Two things you should know about baking with jars:

• Don’t try canning your cake by sealing the lid on top of the jar right when you take it out of the oven. Some may have success with this, but most generally agree that this isn’t safe, bacteria-wise.
• Use wide-mouth jars. A jar with a narrower mouth will make it harder to eat the cake.

FINISHING YOUR JARS

Frosting

To finish off the insides of your jars, simply pipe your favorite frosting on top of the cake with a star shaped tip, and then garnish with Fruity Pebbles or Cocoa Pebbles. I did a basic buttercream frosting for the Fruity Pebbles and then a basic chocolate frosting for the Cocoa Pebbles (the chocolate buttercream made with cocoa powder). After frosting, garnish with some sweet, sweet cereal.

Decorating

Here’s the extra fun part—you can decorate your jars however you like! During the holidays I like to make these and adorn them with a sprig of (faux) pine, a gift tag, some twine, and a wooden spoon for easy eating. So if you want to duplicate what I did, here’s a quick supply list:

• cardstock (for cutting into circles for the lids)
• paper gift tags
• black felt tip pen
• jute or baker’s twine (I use this baker’s twine.)
• wooden spoons (If you want a ton of them, this pack of spoons is a sweet deal.)
• a branch of fake pine (or real pine sprigs if you’re feeling outdoorsy)

 

 

 

So stylin’, amirite?? While baking is always super fun, I think what makes it even more fun is when you’re baking for someone else. So here’s to baking cake in jars for your holiday gifting!

Cheers,
Maurine

PS. This post was sponsored by Post Foods, but as always, all opinions are my own 🙂