These look like a pain in the ass. I loved those fruit crumbles in a jar pictured some time last year--THAT made sense to me: you bake up some lovely treats in a jar, take them on a picnic, eat them w/spoons. But don't you just wreck the cupcake-ness getting it out of the jar or eating it out of the jar? A fruit crumble is kind of a mess by definition. These are all frou-frou and seem destined for destruction.

Fruit crumble in a jar is genius.

Bucket of buttercream with cake garnish just looks gross.

I agree. This just makes no sense.

I also have my doubts about the claim that it will keep for a week. Putting something in a jar doesn't magically make it last longer.

The cupcakes pictured up top make no sense - you could not fit a lid over that buttercream! Seems like a fine idea for a mail order business, but not to do at home. I mean, I just dirtied a few bowls and pans, now I want to dirty up a bunch of jars? To what end?

I guess if you wanted to mail it, it might make sense, but really? Cupcakes are pretty and cute, and they make people smile. You don't have to put them in a jar.

I know I'll be banned forever for posting this, but can we all just move on past cupcakes?

Dear cupcakes,

Please go away. Thanks.

@Sparkula and @fugii13, AGREED!!!

Why?

please don't hate on cupcakes, hate on the idiots that do stupid crap like this with them. the cupcakes are just innocent pawns in this terrible twee world.

I don't understand the point of these if they're not even baked in the jar?!

i think it's a cute idea. you can do that for a bbq or something when people wanna eat and walk around and chat. makes for less of a crumbly mess. i like it.

@fujii13 - cupcakes have been around since the 17-1800's. and kids have been having them at their birthday parties since before anyone decided they were "so hot right now"

bacon also became a trend for whatever reason and i'd never wish for bacon to go away :)

I thought the point of cupcakes is that they are cakes you can eat without needing a plate and a fork.

Now I need a plate, a fork and place to put this jar? Or am I supposed to just shake it out of the jar and into my mouth?

@hmo, i think the strategy is to carry around the jar as you eat the cupcake out of it with a fork or spoon. i guess i could see the benefit, but seriously who the hell has dozens of jars laying around to stuff with pre-baked cupcakes??

I don't particularly care for frosting. With a traditional cupcake, you can just scrape the frosting off of the top. It would annoy me to have to dig through four inches of the stuff just to get to a bit of cake.

don't like. isn't this basically a messy parfait in a jar? wtf?

I like cupcakes as much as the next guy, but...
I agree, I just don't get? How do you get them out without wrecking them? Where does the frosting on top come from? They come baked?

Contrived

Silly

I will say I have baked them in the jar then added frosting to the top then you can take the whole jar with you for let's say a picnic, which is where they went people loved them. Yes you still need a fork to eat them but they don't get squished or anything.

This is not even close to a 'new' concept.

http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2007/12/cake-in-a-jar-s.html

http://www.supereggplant.com/?p=977

A local bakery bakes their GF cupcakes in jars. It keeps them fresher since they don't sell nearly as many.

I'm not over cupcakes, but then again I have kids and I've never known kids to be over cupcakes. I'll bake cupcakes in jars but I won't fill jars with already baked cupcakes layered with frosting. Too much work. But cupcakes in jars are very portable and it beats buying those plastic individual cupcake takers.

I made a Red Velvet cupcake in a jar for my supervisor for her birthday and both she and her husband loved it (it was a large jar).

Depending on the size of the jar you may want to attach a dessert spoon to make sure they get all the goodies out.

Bangerang has been selling cupcakes like this for years. I first ordered from her on Etsy, when she was known as Fat Daddy, back in October of 2007. They typically arrived 2 days after being baked and they still tasted fresh. I've kept them on the counter for about a week and never once did they taste stale. I never froze mine but had a friend who did, she said they still tasted fabulous.

Oh. And you don't need a plate. A fork or a spoon is all you need. Bangerang packs forks with her cupcakes.

Yea, it really isn't a new thing.

Desserts in a jar! I am not a big dessert person, but I think it makes an awesome gift... they are also doing it at jamjarsweets.com and seems like a perfect gift that would travel well.

I agree, it's contrived. Like putting a little mustache on a cupcake and pretending its a brand new fad.
I would never bother with this type of thing.

Mmmmm... cupcakes.

I love cupcakes and all, but that looks like both a waste of time, and WAAAAAAAY too much frosting. I can feel my blood sugar rising just looking at those pictures.

I'm so over cupcakes. There are so many poorly made dry cupcakes with too sweet frosting...give me an apple pie any day!

@tacit_graffiti Except that I would TOTALLY buy a cupcake if it had a funny little mustache! Especially an "old-timey" sort of mustache.

I LOVE cupcakes and am glad that they're not going anywhere. However with that being said I think these are absurd. Why do I want to eat a cupcake in a jar?

I adore any kind of cupcake. I must now find out how to do this!

I make these. No frosting. No cute stuff. I make them so they can be saved and shelf stable for up to six months. I tend to cook in giant batches, and go from there.

I would not cook them this way, with the boiling the jars, and buying new canning lids, etc, if it wasn't for the shelf stability.

I think bakeries have just found a way to repurpose broken or otherwise unsellable cupcakes and market them as a brand new product. One the one hand, I'm glad to see less food go to waste; on the other, I just really hate cupcakes.

Shelf stable for six months?? Who could stare at a cupcake for SIX MONTHS? Wouldn't last six minutes around me..... LOL

These are an ideal use for the millions of baby food jars I have lying around, transporting cupcakes is NOT easy and this way they can stay cute without me having to buy one of those overpriced 30 cupcake holders (p.s. buttercream is disgusting to me so I would just use a cream cheese frosting) perfect for the picnic!

I've been doing this for about two years. I mail cupcakes to far-away-friends for their birthdays. And we're giving cupcakes-in-a-jar away as favors for the bridal shower we're throwing this weekend. I tend to choose glazes and icings rather than poofy frosting, because it will better withstand the mail. Love them.

I love chocolate cake, an inside piece please with just a little bit of frosting, nice and moist. If you can give me a cupcake like that, I won't hate cupcakes, but mostly I think any sort of cupcake is an over frosted dry aberration of cake. Jarred cupcakes included.

These cupcakes are really cute ideas. I run a website that makes cakes in pint-sized mason jars. The only question I have is how they would ship something like that?? I haven't figured out how to put icing on my cakes either. But the shelf life for our cakes are 6 months to a year, versus the 1 week.

What? This makes no sense. I mean, I *love* cupcakes, but this? This is just silly. So contrived.

I make something like this for lunch dessert at work and bake them in the jars (which isn’t really a safe or recommended route really). However, people need to also realize that putting them in a jar doesn't equal safe storing for months at a time; they are not safe from bacteria. It’s not the same as canning jam or soups.

Cupcakes are sooo 2009. These days it's all about the Pie. http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/piesbakedintinyjars/

Hmm, I like it! It seems like a nice way to make sure you get a good mix of frosting and cake in a bite, and you could dress them up with some syrups in the layers more like a traditional cake. I also like the idea that you can carry it around and not get all messy with crumbs, and it'll last longer than a cupcake would normally, at least for me, since I end up trying to shove it in my mouth with the least amount crumbling off!

hate to burst your bubble America, but there's nothing new about these. We military spouses have been sending birthday, anniversary and holiday cakes to our deployed soldiers for a decade. And other spouses did it before us. It's an ingenious way to project the cake and keep it fresh until it gets overseas.

Cupcakes are cool, but I'm not crazy about the being in jars. Do you have to flip it out in order to eat it, or do you use a spoon? Messy or clean method?

You can make cake using a sousvide technique. I wonder if you could modify it for a jar.

I just see this as being more dishes to wash after the birthday party. Come on, the whole point of cupcakes is that you can hold them in your hand and eat them with out dishes or utensils! I guess I have nothing against cupcakes in general but I'm soooo over seeing them on every blog. I'd love to see a return to rustic home-made cakes (or pies!) decorated with flowers from the garden!

Honestly, I couldn't get "cupcake-in-a-cup" out of my mind while reading this article. And the associated images of the people who drank those things put the last nail in. Cupcakes in a jar are not for me. Dessert should be fun, this seems tiresome.

Fruit crumble in a jar, yes. Maybe the idea of a cupcake in a jar is for sending by mail??

The bitter comments are hysterical....'wtf' etc.haha...I agree.....but if someone handed me of these....I'd be glad..: )

I AM SO OVER CUPCAKES
There are so many bad cupcakes out there already (definitely more bad than good). The last thing we need is another cupcake shop trying to market some ridiculous twist on a cupcake... No thank you!

I used to love Bangerang Cupcakes, but they have AWFUL customer service. I went an entire month of waiting for my order to hear from them! I'm going to stick to making my own in a jar.

"i guess i could see the benefit, but seriously who the hell has dozens of jars laying around to stuff with pre-baked cupcakes??"
I do. I have triplets and they are on the big jars of baby food. I am keeping the jars for their first party and making something similar to these shown for the young kids at the party. It's my way of upcycling. Of course I plan a heavy duty cleaning before I use them.

I'm always, always (let me repeat) ALWAYS going to choose a cupcake over a cake. And I will always, always choose the mini-cupcake over the jumbo cupcake.

#1 - It's built in portion control. I really only want one bite. Try explaining that to someone dangerously close to a sugar-high induced coma.
#2 - If I ignore #1, I can have 3 flavors. With cake, I'd only get 1 flavor or look like a squirrel preparing for a gluten-free winter.

So, stop all the hatin' on my little cakes!

PS: I do agree, however, that cupcakes served, but not baked in the jar are beyond superfluous.

First, I thought the cupcake rage was over. Second, a paper cupcake wrapper is far prettier than having to buy a bunch of jars. Just not into this. Hmmph!

Pies in a jar are much easier & prettier!!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/09/single-serving-pie-in-a-jar/

Cupcakes have always been popular and I know that more people are having them served at their weddings instead of traditional cake, but a cupcake in a jar? I suppose it would be a good gift for someone you don't know well or don't really care for. The one thing that gets me is the name. It should be called "Jarcakes" or "Cake in a Jar," since the cake is no longer in a Cup. Plus, as several people have already commented, the main point of cupcakes is to loose the fork. Putting a "cupcake" in a jar is putting the fork back into the picture.

Oh no no no... those just won't do.

For epic cuppycake goodness, you gotta go for the Cupcake Push-Pop!!

http://www.ilovesugarbabys.com/cupcakepushpops/

I would rather have a cupcake in a paper wrapper than cake that has been cut up and handled by someone and squeezed into a jar - although they do look cute.

The jars have to be an added cost to the consumer. Most cupcakes are pricey to begin with, I can't imagine spending more to pay for a jar.

I made some chocolate peppermint cupcakes in jars and gave them away as Christmas presents - they were a HUGE hit. I wouldn't trust them to sit on a shelf unrefrigerated for more than a day, though - too much worry about spoilage. But I'm planning on giving them away again next Christmas!

Why would anyone ever want cupcakes to go away?

What all the cupcake haters? And what's so wrong with putting them in a jar? They're cute, would transport easily, and I love the idea of mailing them to friends for birthdays. And for the record, I have a million mason jars of all sizes hanging around. I use them for everything--food storage in cupboards, fridge, freezer, for leftovers in packed lunches, etc. I use them for homemade baby food, giving things like granola as gifts. Love mason jars AND cupcakes!

Seems unnecessarily expensive.

@IndieArmyWife I'm with you. We did this back in the mid 90's, learned it from another 82nd wife at Fort Bragg. My hubby loved them. Nothing new under the sun, only recycled with a twist.

This is the stupidest thing since the last stupidest thing. It is just another way to charge a lot of money for not very much.

love it

I have learned from this thread that if I ever want to send a cake overseas it can go in a jar. Thanks, Army wives! Other than that eminently practical use, not.

Ok, now I'm hungry.

I still love cupcakes, but in a jar? Ridiculous! I also don't think whoopie pies and the cake pop are going to knock cupcakes of their rightful pedestal. Only the French macaron has a chance in my book, but making one properly is an art form, so don't think every bake shop will want to tackle them:)

I'm going to push this fad to the breaking point, then I'm gonna drop out and start an international online cupcake company that sells cupcakes made in---wait for it---little fluted paper cup things!!! It'll be so fresh and new and cute and irresistible! I'll be on Oprah and Ellen and Jimmy Kimmel! I'll be a millionaire overnight!!!

Cupcake in a jar? Don't think so. Pie in a jar? Now you're onto something.

TOO MUCH FROSTING.

You people. No one wants to hear your negative babbling. This isn't a venue for cynicism for goodness sakes..Just because there is a comment box, don't feel compelled to curse and rant as if you were a teenager on a social network. Grow-up and show some grain of etiquette.

This is probably a better idea than just eating frosting out of a jar...

Nothing wrong with that, though, occasionally.

I love this idea. My husband always eats his cupcakes twisted. He breaks off the bottom half and smashes in on top of the frosting. It's like a sandwich so the frosting is even throughout. I like eating it out of a jar this way, less mess and crumbles!

I love this idea. I will be making these one batch at a time and freezing them to be delivered to all the teachers in the school on their actual birthday. This will save our PTA some money over the store bought cakes we used to supply once a month and I think the teachers will think their cute.

Such a shame that this is being posted again. This is so wasteful. Many wont recycle the jar, and even if they do, it takes a lot of energy to recycle the glass to be used again. If they were done in a paper cupcake liner that takes up so little in the trash/ landfill.

It is so embarrassing that people act like a cupcake is some magical new creation. All they are is a small piece of cake.