Cupcakes in a Jar -5 Different Flavor Ideas

Cupcakes in a Mason Jar -Perfect for your next picnic or bbq, 5 Flavours your guests will love; Peach, strawberry, chocolate, lemon, and blueberry all made from a base of one batch of vanilla cupcakes, vanilla icing, and whip cream.

Layers of cupcakes with delicious icing and other fun add-ins in a mason jar are the perfect individual sized and portable treat.  Our mason jar cupcakes are so fun to make and even more fun to eat.  We made five different flavors, make a mix like us or choose your favourite.

Summer is the perfect time for bbq’s, picnics, and beach days.  These cupcakes in a mason jar are great for bringing along anywhere.  They travel amazingly, are super yummy, and totally cute.  We made ours for a family get-together and they were a big hit.  These would also be a great addition to a care packages for a friend.  If you’ve ever dropped off a dinner for a sick friend and wanted a portable easy dessert, this would be perfect.  Just remember that these do need to be refrigerated, since they contain whipped cream and fresh fruit..

We made our cupcake jars with vanilla cupcakes, and then made all different kinds of fillings and icing.  Start by making a batch of your favourite vanilla cupcakes -from your favorite cupcake recipe or a cake mix, and then get creative.  Our cake mix made 24 cupcakes, which we baked the cupcake batter in the oven using regular muffin tins and cupcake liners.  Then to make our cupcakes in a jar, we just removed the cupcake liners from each traditional cupcake and cut each one in half layering the top and bottom in the jar with our other ingredients.  We found the regular-sized cupcakes were perfect for a small mason jar.

If you prefer, you could make one large thin cake and use the jar itself or a cookie cutter to cut out the cake into rounds to fit into the jars easily.

Mason Jars

The mason jars make this sweet treat perfectly portable.  These are so great for bringing to a picnic or to special occasions.  Once your mason jar cake is all prepared, just put the lid on the jar and you’re ready to go.  We used 8 oz jars for our cupcakes and they worked out perfectly.  Another added benefit to the canning jars make for really moist cupcakes, because the jars are an airtight container with the lid on.

Lemon Cupcakes in a Mason Jar

These were actually for my mother-in-laws birthday and she loves all things lemon.  We decided to make a lemon version with homemade lemon curd -but store bought would work just as well, look for it with the jam in the supermarket.  

We started our cupcakes in a mason jar, by cutting the vanilla cupcake in half and putting the bottom half into the bottom of the mason jars.  Then we added a layer of our lemon curd, followed by some whipped cream.  Use a spoon, a piping bag, or even a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off to add the jam, cream, and icing layers to the jars.  Then we added the cupcake top and, frosted it with vanilla icing, and added some yellow sprinkles for fun.

• vanilla cupcake
• lemon curd
• whipped cream
• vanilla icing
• yellow sprinkles

Blueberry Cupcakes in a Mason Jar

Next we made blueberry mason jar cakes.  We again started by cutting our vanilla cupcake in half, and putting the bottom into the mason jar.  I added a layer of whipped cream, then some fresh blueberries and a little blueberry jam, followed by the top of the cupcake, and vanilla icing.  We topped them off with a few more fresh berries.  Make sure to not make the cakes to high in the jar when your assembling them, so that you can easily put the lid of the jar on the top.

• vanilla cupcake
• whipped cream
• blueberry jam
• fresh blueberries
• vanilla icing

Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes in a Mason Jar

One of my daughters loves all things chocolate, so we came up with an easy chocolate version too.  We layered vanilla cupcake, whipped cream, chopped toffee chocolate bar, vanilla cupcake, chocolate icing, and more chocolate bar pieces.

• vanilla cupcakes
• whipped cream
• toffee chocolate bar pieces
• chocolate icing

Base Ingredients

To make the whole process easier, I whipped up a whole bowl of cream that we used for all of them, and a batch of vanilla icing.  Then, we added flavours to the vanilla base; cocoa powder to make chocolate, pureed strawberry for strawberry icing, and peach jam -with a drop of red and yellow food colouring, to make peach icing.

Strawberry Cupcakes in a Mason Jar

The strawberry cupcakes in a jar were made by layering vanilla cupcake, whipped cream, fresh sliced strawberries, cupcake, and strawberry icing.  These might have been my fav., like strawberry shortcake, but sweeter.

• vanilla cupcakes
• whipped cream
• fresh strawberries
• strawberry icing

Peach Cupcakes in a Mason Jar

Last, but not least we made peach cupcakes in a jar.  We layered vanilla cupcake, whipped cream, fresh sliced peaches, cupcake, and peach icing.  So yummy, especially this time of year, with peaches in season here.

• vanilla cupcakes
• whipped cream
• fresh peaches
• peach vanilla icing

After we had the cupcakes in jar all ready for the party, I packed them up in an old coke crate, along with some flowers and headed to the party.

Storing

Because our cupcakes have fresh fruit and whipped cream in them they need to be stored in the fridge.  Put the lids on the glass jars for storage.  And be sure to serve these with a fork or spoon for eating.

I love the five flavors that we came up with using our vanilla cupcakes. You could use any of your favorite flavor cupcake flavors and icing to make these.  These are delicious as just two layers of cake with icing as well.  Try making red velvet cupcakes and layering them with cream cheese frosting.  Peanut butter cupcakes layered with jam, or chocolate icing would be a great combinations too.  You could also try a s’more inspired combination with chocolate cupcakes, marshmallow fluff, chocolate icing, and graham cracker crumbs.  The possibilities for these cupcakes in jar are endless.

We had a few left over, so the next day I decided I should try out another flavour, only to discover that they were all gone all ready.  The early bird gets the worm cupcake.  These were a special treat and everyone really enjoyed them.  These are such a great way to serve cupcakes.

With cupcakes in a mason jar this yummy, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our Breakfast Picnic here.

Also check out our Beach Picnic here.

You might also enjoy our Backyard Picnic here.