Gift Idea #2: Ready to Bake!

Maybe you’ve seen it somewhere already: the pretty jars filled with different layers to bake a delicious cake, cookies or even bread. Most pre-made baking mixtures are not very healthy though and definitely not homemade. But you can change that! The only thing you need is some pretty jars and the dry ingredients for your favorite cake. If you’re looking for a last-minute gift idea – here you go!

Baking mixture in jars?

Exactly! The idea behind this is basically to combine all dry ingredients of a cake or cookies of your choice in a jar, add a nice gift ribbon and some baking instructions and your gift is ready. I personally love these jars as they look pretty and are something you can actually use. In addition, it adds a nice personal note if you make them yourself.

Of course you can not only layer the ingredients for sweets but also for a delicious savory bread. In this post I am giving you some options, all ingredients I used are vegan of course. In general you can literally use any recipe you want – as long as all ingredients you put in your jar are dry you’ll be just fine.

Gift in a jar – 3 variations

In this blog post I want to present you three different options I really liked. In case you are using a different recipe make sure it is one where only little wet ingredients need to be added afterwards – otherwise it kind of ruins the idea of a gift I guess. Here we go with the options…

Jar 1 – Hazelnutcake. My favorite cake can be put in a jar! The recipe can be found here. You should add a note with the following instructions:

Add before baking: 250ml soy or oat milk. Bake at 180°C for about 50 minutes.

I used a ball mason jar for this because they look very pretty and I have empty ones at home. However, you can also use any other empty jar e.g. from the apple sauce you used up or a big jar of jam. Whatever is big enough.

Jar 2 – Muesli cookies. Cookies are always a good idea, right?! Besides tasting delicious deconstructed muesli cookies look very pretty, too. I used the dry ingredients from my muesli cookie recipe. In addition you should add a note with the following instructions:

Add before baking: 2 small bananas and 80ml soy milk. Afterwards bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes.

Jar 3 – Spelt-seed-bread. Not everyone has such a big tooth like I do so I thought I’d share a savory option, too. In the end you can still enjoy a good slice of freshly baked bread with some PB and jam, right?!

For the spelt-seed-bread you need to layer the following ingredients:

• 250g wholegrain spelt flour
• 50g oats
• 25g flax seeds
• 25g sunflower seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt

Afterwards write a note and add it to the jar:

Add before baking: 1 sachet dried yeast, 1 tbs apple cider vinegar and 250ml water. Afterwards bake at 170°C for about 30 minutes.

I hope I was able to inspire you a little bit and that you give this gift idea a try! If you do, please let me know down in the comments below and also what kind of filling you chose for your jar.

In case you post a picture on instagram don’t forget to tag me with @sheloveseating so I don’t miss it 🙂