Rainbow cake in a jar

Who wouldn't love some rainbow cake in a jar? This is very simple and fairly quick and the good news is, it's impossible to mess up!

You will need:
- wide mouth canning jars in whatever sizes you prefer (I used one pint sized jar for my husband and two half pints for myself and my daughter)
- box white cake mix made according to package instructions (using only egg whites is an important step if you want vibrant colors!)
- neon food colors (I used purple, blue, green, yellow, red and orange)
- 1 can vanilla frosting (although I used a fluffier homemade icing with less sugar)
- rainbow sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and thoroughly spray the inside of your jars with nonstick spray.

2. Mix up your cake batter and separate into six small bowls. It's okay if the proportions aren't exactly even.

3. Tint each bowl of batter with food color until they are the bright vibrant colors you would like.

4. Spoon fairly even amounts of the batter into your jars, one layer at a time until the jars are half or a little over half full.

5. Place the jars in a shallow baking dish. Add about 1/4" water to the baking dish. Cook for about thirty minutes. If you do like me and use different sized jars, the smaller jars will probably only take 30-35 minutes, while the larger jars 40-45. (Again, I have to remind you all that my oven is old and doesn't heat properly, so my recipes sometimes take longer.) I used a wooden skewer to check the centers of my cakes. When the skewer comes out clean, your cake is done!

Don't panic if you've put too much batter and the jars are cooking over. Just let them finish cooking. The extra cake can be wiped away when you remove your jars and once they have cooled, you can scoop out the top of the cake to allow room for your icing and sprinkles.

You all should also know that these can be gifted via jar! Let them cool completely and screw the lids on the jars and you can pop them in the mail to surprise someone! I wouldn't recommend doing that though if the destination of your cake is more than three days mail time. The cake probably won't stay fresh for that long. Enjoy!

*Someone recently poked at me about a rare but serious illness called Botulism. It enters the body through wounds but may also live in improperly canned or preserved food. I didn't think too much about it at first, but I'd hate for anyone to end up sick. So remember, DON'T put a lid on these until they've cooled and DON'T store them for more than three or four days. They may last longer than that, but did you look up botulism? I wouldn't chance it!*