An undercover inmate explains how to make birthday cake in jail
But without access to an oven, cooking supplies, or even common ingredients like eggs, butter and milk, inmates need to get creative.
At Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana, inmates concoct a treat they call "jail cake," according to one of the participants on the A&E documentary series "60 Days In."
Barbra, who] spent two months as an undercover inmate for the show, said jail cake was only eaten on special occasions.
"This was a cake that was only made if it was someone's birthday or if someone was getting called for 'bed and baggage,' meaning they were going home," she told Business Insider.
Equipped with only a microwave and select ingredients from the jail's commissary - an in-house store where inmates can buy food, toiletries, and other items - inmates learned to whip up a surprisingly tasty treat.
"I actually liked jail cake so much that I made it for my husband's birthday cake when I got home from jail. I wanted him to feel like he was part of the process in some way," Barbra said.
Here's Barbra's recipe for jail cake. All items were purchased from the jail commissary:
Plenty of alternative recipes for jail-friendly cake are available on YouTube. One user suggests a different set of processed snacks, namely Snickers bars, M&Ms, and honey buns. Another user recommends using a small amount of mayonnaise as a binding agent for the smashed cookie crumbs:
While jail cake might sound delicious, jails don't exactly serve gourmet. With a budget of $1 for each inmate's meal, some of what Barbra and the other participants ate barely resembled food. They also endured other harrowing experiences, like having to navigate a strict social hierarchy just to use the bathroom.