Lemon Zest Cake Jars

This shop, featuring a recipe for Lemon Zest Cake Jars, has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PurelySimple #CollectiveBias

Baking. I love to do it and I love it even more when my kids can help. For a long time, I baked everything from scratch. It was extremely important to me to know every single ingredient that was going into a recipe that my family would be enjoying. However I don’t always have the time to bake from scratch anymore. Three year old twins and a super-busy six year old keep me on my toes and grasping for every spare minute! Fortunately for me, Pillsbury Purely Simple is helping me to get back to baking. These mixes have no dyes, no preservatives and no artifical flavors. It’s the best of both worlds – the convenience of a mix, with the quality of simple ingredients.

One thing I love to make with Pillsbury Purely Simple are Lemon Zest Cake Jars. These are a favorite around here! My kids love them and they’re great for entertaining and gifting. For this particular cake-in-a-jar, I chose to use Pillsbury Purely Simple Vanilla Cake Mix and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, which I was able to pick up on a Target Shopping trip, along with fresh lemons.

I keep this recipe simple with my additions – utilizing only fresh lemon juice and lemon zest as my add-ins, along with organic, farm-fresh butter, milk and eggs to complete my recipe.

For these cake jars, start with mason jars or any other jar that you can seal. I like to start by baking the cake, which is done according to the super-easy instructions on the back of the package. I add freshly grated lemon zest, along with squeezed lemon juice once the batter has been mixed. Not only do I love the color that the zest gives to the cake, it also creates amazing flavor.

While the cake is baking (in two cake pans) move on to the Pillsbury Purely Simple Frosting. It couldn’t be eaier to create the perfect frosting! Prepare the frosting according to the instructions and add in freshly grated lemon zest. Again, the color is beautiful, but it also carries the flavor through.

Once the cake is baked and cooled, I like to use one side of a mason jar to approximate the size that I will need to fit easily into the jar. This makes it so much easier to layer the cake in the jar. Next, pipe frosting on top, sprinkle with more lemon zest and repeat until you reach the top. If you will be gifting, leave room for the lid. If serving right away, you can bring your final layer higher up for a more dramatic presentation.

I like to garnish with a fresh lemon slice and, you guessed it, more lemon zest!

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