CLM Hen House

MertVnWV · Joined: 21 Mar 2026 Posts: 201 Location: Southern WV

This makes a great gift for friends and neighbors. Also great for Christmas Bazaar item. Decorate with pretty label and a circle of Christmas fabric under the jar ring. Yield: 8 (1 pint) jars.

INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 cups mashed bananas
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease insides of 8 (1 pint) straight sided, wide mouth canning jars.
In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, bananas, and water. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Add to banana mixture. Stir in nuts.
Pour mixture into greased WIDE MOUTH pint jars, filling 1/2 full of batter. Do NOT put lids on jars for baking. Be careful to keep the rims clean, wiping off any batter that gets on the rims.
Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, sterilize the lids and rings in boiling water.
As soon as cake is done, remove from oven one at a time, wipe rims of jars and put on lid and ring. Jars will seal as cakes cool. Place the jars on the counter and listen for them to "ping" as they seal. If you miss the "ping", wait until they are completely cool and press on the top of the lid. If it doesn't move at all, it's sealed.
Jars should be eaten immediately or kept sealed in refrigerator for up to a week. These also freeze well.
**If the cake rises above the top of the jar you can slip it part way out of the jar and with a sharp knife slice off a portion of the cake so you can fit the top onto the jar. Just be careful not to put too much batter into the jars. It may take filling and baking a few jars for you to get the "feel" of how much batter to put in the jar.
You will be surprised at how easy the cake slides out of the jar. Using a fork I ate mine right from the jar. Laughing

These make really nice gifts.
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