TRES LECHES CAKES IN JARS FOR THE WEDDING

So this past weekend was 2nd Man's Niece's wedding.  She and her fiancé both wanted a casual and stylish at home wedding.  They asked 2nd Man if he would make his famous "Tres Leches" (Three Milks cake, click here if you've never heard of it) as their wedding cake.  When we saw the invitation, we had a thought.  Would they like cakes cooked in jars?
They loved the idea since their theme included mason jars.

2nd Man was in charge of the inside of the jar (the cake) and I was in charge of the outside.  We decided to pull elements from the invitation into the jar decor.  The first thing I did was find the exact same purple and white string from their invitation.  I  found office supply store hang tags and swapped out the string.

Then I purchased a stamp set with letters of the alphabet and an ink pad.  This way, I was able to recreate their initials as they had them on their invitation.  "A heart E".  I stamped them all, one letter at a time, and then went back and stuck a red heart sticker in the middle of each one.  We think it looked pretty nice when compared to the invitation. 

The other theme from their invitation was the burlap and lace.  I found some burlap and cut it into squares.  Then I bought a spool of lace ribbon and cut it into strips.

This is what it looked like when I was done.  I would put the metal canning lid on, then a piece of burlap with the lace in a strip one direction and the hang tag with purple/white string the other direction.  Lastly, as I was holding it all in place, I screwed the ring onto the jar to hold it all into place. 

As much as I could get the decorations ready, they still had to be baked, the tres leches poured over and allowed to soak in and whipped cream topping put on, all before I could decorate.  The batter was poured in each jar and baked, sixteen at a time, in the oven.

Here are seventy two jars, filled and baked, waiting for whipped topping and then the jar decor.  At this point, only 24 more to go!

This is what they looked like in the back of the car, ready for their wedding debut.

Wedding cakes in jars, burlap and lace

Lastly, here they are on the table at their house.  We made 96 of them.  I believe 90 people or so RSVP'd so we we figured better to have a few extra, plus the jars come in cases of twelve.  They were, from all outward appearances and comments from everyone, a huge success.

The wedding was just beautiful, "E" looked SO pretty in her dress and "A" was smiling from ear to ear throughout the entire event.  A really nice touch came at the end of the ceremony after they exchanged rings.  They pulled out a box, opened it together and beautiful monarch butterflies flew out and into the yard.

You know, I grew up an only child, so we just never had a big family.  It was just Mom and Dad and both sets of grandparents most to the time for any special occasion.  To be welcomed into this wonderful and large family means the world to me.  I am truly blessed!