Homemade Carrot Cake in a Jar!!

Carrot cakes have always been a childhood favourite. I’ve never really like carrots per se, but carrot cake? Not saying no to that! I really wouldn’t call myself a baking or cooking expert by any means, but making something I love – I’ll always take that as a challenge. Plus, this super delicious carrot cake recipe is really easy to make AND it’s packaged nicely in a jar – just PERFECT!

Recipe: Carrot Cake in a Jar

Ingredients for the Carrot Cake

(makes 4 500ml servings)

1 cup of flour, sifted
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp of baking soda
8 tbsp of crushed pineapple
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1 cup of shredded carrots (I know I have two carrots in the photo, but I only ended up using one)
1/2 cup of shredded sweetened coconut
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of cinnamon
4 500ml mason jars (or 8 250ml mason jars)

Ingredients for the Frosting:

1/2 cup of cream cheese (half a bar)
1/4 cup of butter, softened (4 tbsp.)
Icing sugar, to taste

The key thing to baking is to ensure all the ingredients are at room temperature – so be sure to take all the ingredients out of the fridge and let them rest for at least 30 minutes. Prep time for this project took about 3o minutes and the baking took 45 minutes.

Part 1: Sterilize the mason jars. Bring a stock pot filled with enough water to cover the mason jars and set it to boil. The jars will probably try to float when you put them in, the trick I found was to fill them a bit with water. Put the lids in as well. Let them sit in the boiling water for at least 10 minutes, then you can take them out and dry them.

Part 2: Bake the cake. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and then start with shredding the carrots if you haven’t already shredded them (peel the carrots before you shred them!)

Beat the eggs and the oil very well. I used a hand mixer to ensure that the mixture is even.

Then, add the sugar and mix well.

Add in flour, baking soda, vanilla and cinnamon.

Finally, add the carrots, coconut, pineapple and walnuts. Mix well. I must say it isn’t a pretty sight – but it is sure delicious when it is done! :)

Grease the jars with some oil. I used a paper towel dabbed with some vegetable oil and wiped the insides of the jars. Fill the jars half-full with the carrot cake mixture. I put them in a 9×13 jelly pan because I was scared I would tip them by mistake inside the oven. Placed them in the oven for 45 minutes.

While the carrot cakes are baking, I used the time to do some clean-up and work on the frosting.

Part 3: Make the frosting. Beat the butter and the cream cheese until smooth.

Add the icing sugar in increments of 1/2 cups and taste to ensure it is sweet enough for you. I ended up using a cup.

Then, I took out the carrot cakes.I used the toothpick test to ensure that they are cooked all the way through (I think they vary depending on the size of the container). Might want to try them at 35 minutes and then put in some more time to ensure they are cooked all the way through. Let them cool before adding the frosting.

Adding the frosting will also shorten the shelf life of the cake, so only put the frosting if you know that the cake will be eaten within a week. I did not have a piping bag, so I just used a spoon to add the frosting on top of the carrot cake.