i love this! my husband is also deployed overseas for 6 months and i would LOVE to send him and his unit(? haha) some of these jarred cupcakes! im wanting to see how armywife1's jars arrive, because like her husband, mine's in some hot weather right now. last thing i want is to get them sick.

thanks for the idea! and not to mention how much i love cupcakes, admittingly, more than cakes! so even better!

I have to say that even though the jar cupcakes are really cute, it is expensive to send because you have to wrap the jars so carefully so they don't break. I did this once, and once is all I could afford (especially after sending 150 pairs of Croc's to them. So, once in awhile doing something like this is fun, but it's not worth the expense.

Success!! My DH received the cakes today, and said everyone raved about them. He threw the frosting packets away because he said it didn't look right with all the butter separating. However, he did say that the cakes didn't need frosting. They were great as is! I am SO happy! I did tell him to eat all of the cake after he opened it, since the shelf life shortens exponentially after they are opened. I should point out that it arrived exactly three weeks after mailing.

vicky- thanks for the info! How cool that you got to send that many pairs of crocs!

There is a website that will send cakes to troops, I think it's called bake me a wish... but nothing taste as good as homemade! :]

Armywife- YAY I am so glad to hear they enjoyed them! I think when I do mine I will send some store brand bc, but it will be winter there when he first goes so I don't have to worry about heat either! So cool!

Thanks to the ideas in this thread, I sent some out last week to a friend serving overseas. I tried the layered ones as suggested by the OP. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping they arrive in one piece and still edible!!!

Success! I was getting extremely nervous because it took 13 days for the cupcakes to arrive (even though the post office told me 7-9 days). I guess they were held up in customs - probably by a bomb sniffing dog with a sweet tooth!

In any case, they were sent to a hot country and they were still edible upon arrival. I was told by my friend that they were still layered - I was expecting the frostings/fillings to be melted in the bottom of the jars!

Regarding the expense - just use the flat rate boxes from the post office - saves a lot in shipping!

Cindy, how did you seal the jars after putting the frosting in it? From TN it took three weeks for mine to arrive, so I'm not sure if frosting would last with the heat. I'm afraid it might ruin everything, especially since I'm not sure how to seal them after they cool. I

Here's exactly how I constructed mine:

Jars - the store I went to only had wide mouth pint jars (no 1/2 pint) so mine were quite big!

I baked a bunch of jumbo cupcakes (pound cake style - so they would hold up better) and froze them. When I was ready to fill the jars, I pulled the cakes out of the freezer, cut them in half and trimmed them so they would just barely squeeze into the jar. Layered the cakes (while still frozen) with sleeve filling and/or frosting (variations of Indydebi's buttercream recipe because it has a great shelf life!). Because of the big jars, I was able to fit cake, filling, cake, filling, cake, and icing on the top as well. Then I just screwed the lids on tight, tied a spoon and label to each, packed them up and shipped the box out the same day! So they were actually still a little frozen when they were mailed. Hope this helps!

Can someone share with me how to make Cakes in a Jar or share a fun recipe?

How long can you store them for and can you freeze them? Obviously you frost them before you put the lid on, but you have to wait for them to cool, so how do you get the jar sealed then?

Very unique and interesting.