Desserts for the Deserving

The need can be anything from a new baby to a hospital stay to the loss of a loved one.

The desire on our part is the same, to make life easier for the recipient.  To give them a gift of a warm, comforting, homemade meal.   

When my church reached out and asked if I could bring a meal to a family that just had their first child I said yes before she could finish talking.  Having just have had a baby myself, I know how wonderful a small kind gesture can be!

So in addition to the main grub, I decided to bring them a fun dessert.

I made the six different cakes in jars!  They are roughly a single serving each, or if you are like me, they are half a single serving.

Each jar is different and each has its own distinctive frosting.

But here is the fun part.

I made them all from ONE cake recipe.

White Cake

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup milk

4 egg whites

2 cups cake flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine sugar and shortening until well blended.  In separate bowl, beat egg whites until light and frothy. (about 3 minutes)  Sift baking powder into flour.  Add flour to sugar mixture alternating with the milk.  Add extract.  Gently add egg whites and fold in until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes depending on your stove.

Baking tip specifically for jars:

Add 1/2 cup cake batter to well greased jar and bake at 325 for 35-45 minutes.  The goal is to make sure the center is not raw, hence the longer cooking time.  Start watching your jar at 30 minutes to make sure you don't over-bake.

Here is how I made six different cakes with one batter!

In every recipe I added the suggested ingredients to 1/2 cup of the plain white cake batter.

(I used this buttercream recipe and Cool Whip for my whipped topping)

  
 

 

 Doh!  That should totally say PEACH, not peace.  Sorry!

 

 

This was a fun and easy way to make sure everyone gets something they would like!

I also tied a tag onto each jar describing the contents.  I sorta had this vision of the new mom sitting at her kitchen table at 2:00am feeding her baby with every jar open in front of her and shes sampling a little from each one.

Maybe that was less of a vision and more of a fantasy.  Cause like, I am still feeding my three month old at 2:00am.

I also added little words of encouragement on the top of each jar... a Bible saying on a couple, "Congrats", "Blessings", easy sayings like that.

This whole project with definitely a labor of love and I felt so privileged that I was able to offer up a small gift! 

If you try it, be sure to leave a comment and let me stop by and gush over your Dessert for Someone Deserving!

Comments

[Michelle]

Amanda - this is genious! I know I'm like, a year and a half behind on reading either of your blogs, but I'm in awe of your skills. You just keep growing and growing in your baking and photography talents and I just adore your creations. I just wanted you to know. Oh, and I'm most definately going to try this.

[cooking rookie]

Super cute idea ;-)

[EmilyH]

What a blessing to that family. I have also been on the receiving end of sweet ladies in our church delivering a meal. This takes it to a new level.