Christmas in July – Homemade Vanilla Extract

Monday, July 26, 2010

Christmas in July – Homemade Vanilla Extract

With just under 5 months until Christmas, it might be time to start thinking about gifts for your friends and family. That’s what I was doing about a year ago. I am definitely a big planner and had decided early in 2009 to make as many Christmas gifts as I could. Some of these gifts required quite a bit of time and some were easy to throw together. This week I’ll be sharing the gifts that I gave our family and friends last year.

The first gift came about due to a sale on Amazon. There was a great deal on 1/2 lb of vanilla beans. I started with two bottles of vodka and the vanilla beans. Once the beans were split (but not scraped) and placed in the vodka, the bottles just had to sit in a cool dark place. Every couple of weeks Hubby would pull the vodka out of the closet and shake the crap out of it. A couple months later the vanilla extract was ready to go!

I ordered some bottles online and made some labels for the bottles to finish off the look. I also placed two vanilla beans into each bottle.

I love that the vanilla extract tastes so good, has the specks of fresh vanilla beans, and will essentially never run out. If the vanilla starts running low, you can just top it off with some more vodka. As you use vanilla beans, just throw the pods in the bottle to replenish the vanilla flavor.

One Year Ago: Goat Cheese Potato Salad and Salmon with Yellow Pepper and Cilantro Pesto
Two Years Ago: Champagne Cupcakes

Better than Store Bought, Family Favorites, Gift Ideas, How-To

13 comments »

18 Responses to “Shipping Cupcakes in a Jar”

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CB — November 9, 2008 at 4:22 pm

I love it! Where did you get the jars? Now I totally wanna do this for xmas gifts!
/Clara
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Jen — November 9, 2008 at 4:23 pm

I looked everywhere and just couldn’t find them. I ended up ordering them from Amazon. They weren’t very cheap so that was a bummer…
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CB — November 9, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Ah bummer. What size are the jars? I wonder if Ikea would have them? Whats the amazon link?
/Clara
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Jen — November 9, 2008 at 4:42 pm

I ordered them from here. You want the wide mouth jars so the cupcakes fit and the 1/2 pint size is perfect.

The yellow cupcakes didn’t rise much so I added more frosting to fill the jar and the chocolate ones rose quite a bit so they had less frosting. My sister said that the chocolate one had the perfect amount of frosting or could use a smidge more, so you want a cupcake that has at least a small dome.
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ttfn300 — November 9, 2008 at 7:29 pm

haha, i’ve never seen that before 🙂 love it!
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Katie — November 10, 2008 at 1:14 pm

OH FUN! I’ve seriously always thought about doing this and never did. I’m starring this post to remind myself at Christmas. Too cute!!
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Janna — November 11, 2008 at 2:46 pm

I have been dying to try this ever since I saw it last year on someone else’s blog. They actually baked the cake in the jar and then iced it like a cupcake. I am going to have to order some of those iddy jars! Too cute!
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Beth — November 16, 2008 at 4:25 pm

Hmmm…might have to do this for Christmas instead of those “ingredients in a jar” thing we were thinking of.
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Renée — March 12, 2009 at 3:24 pm

I really want to try this, but I keep reading online that you shouldn’t put frosting in the jar because it will get moldy by the time it reaches its destination. I’m sure you would have heard if it was moldy when it got to your friend right? I would just be so embarrassed if that happened. Any help?
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Jen — March 12, 2009 at 3:30 pm

Renee – I’ve done this twice and both times haven’t heard of any mold. I froze the cupcakes/frosting in the jars prior to shipping them. I also shipped in the winter. My one sister even didn’t go get her package from the office until a week after it arrived and it was still good. I would guess she ate her cupcakes about 10 days after I sent them. I’m not sure if shipping in warm weather will have an impact on potential mold…
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Renée — March 12, 2009 at 3:33 pm

Alright I’ll definitely give it a try then. It will make for a very good Easter present for my faraway friends =)
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Jen — March 12, 2009 at 3:35 pm

Oh that’s a good idea!! I might have to order some more jars and do the same myself…
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Hillary — June 5, 2009 at 3:25 pm

What a clever idea! I would love to get a cupcake in the mail! 🙂 Maybe I’ll send out Valentine’s Day Cupcakesnext year!
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CuteCupcakesAllTheTime — May 6, 2010 at 5:39 pm

This comment has been removed by the author.
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CuteCupcakesAllTheTime — May 6, 2010 at 5:40 pm

Love these!! We have featured you on our blog. http://cutecupcakesallthetime.blogspot.com
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Pat — February 16, 2013 at 11:19 am
Did you freeze them before shipping? The jars looked frosted…
- beantownbaker — February 24th, 2013 @ 10:21 am
  
  I did freeze them. They defrosted as they were shipped. I’ve done it with and without the freezing depending on the weather and whatnot.
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PinkSuga — October 27, 2014 at 7:38 pm

What shipping method did you use? Overnight or Express???