Where it all began…
Cake4Kids started in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been growing steadily across the nation thanks to thousands of amazing volunteer bakers!
Launched: September 2010
Number of Cakes Baked in 1st Year: 13
Most Popular Themes: Frozen, Superheroes, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Soccer
Help Cake4Kids deliver more smiles!
About
Sharon Koay and Emily Mattison-Earls, Cake4Kids SF Bay Area Co-Ambassadors
Sharon Koay
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I grew up in the Bay Area but am a wanderer by heart. I have lived on three different continents and am always excited to explore new places, cultures and cuisines. My love of baking and cooking leads me to spend way too much time researching new recipes to test out. Then in an effort to work off all those calories, I like to take a hike, play badminton or go for a run.
What’s your favorite thing to bake?
My favorite thing to bake is French macaron. They are known to be super finicky but I appreciate that to succeed with macaron you should be persistent, consistent and above all, lucky! I also enjoy the challenge of experimenting with unique flavor combinations (pistachio blue cheese macaron anyone?) while taking into account different factors such as humidity, temperature and batter viscosity.
What was your biggest #bakingfail?
There are too many fails to list here, but one time I created a cake based on the movie “Up” as a surprise for a friend’s baby shower. I was so proud of it. Or at least I was up until I tripped on the way to the car. I watched the cake fly into the air, as if suspended by a dozen balloons, before landing upside down with a loud plop!
Emily Mattison-Earls
Tell us a little about yourself!
Besides lots of baking, I love when I get to travel and enjoy taking in new sights. I always have to order at least one macaron wherever I go as those are a favorite of mine. I have a group of friends that I'll go to concerts with and this year we have seen Dua Lipa, Journey and soon going to Bottlerock. I used to teach a zumba style kickboxing class and even though I stopped in 2025, anytime I hear one of the 30+ songs I choreographed, it's a guarantee that I will start dancing and calling out the moves.
What or who inspired your love of baking?
My grandma used to always make us cupcakes and giant cookie cakes for birthdays and dance recitals. When I first started baking, I would think about those occasions a lot. Over the years, my joy of baking is really for the occasions I get to be a part of. Numerous friends' weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, the random Tuesdays, etc. I love the joy it brings and that is especially true with Cake4Kids. Baking for Cake4Kids brings me SO much joy!
What’s your favorite thing to bake?
Macarons. As finicky as they can be, when a batch comes out perfect, I am thrilled. Cake4Kids is helping me to love making cakes more which has been exciting. Especially being able to work on my cake decorating skills!
If you’re interested in baking, please visit the Volunteer page!
If you are a caseworker who is receiving free cakes for your youth clients, please visit Who We Help to request our services!
If you still have questions, please contact us.
Upcoming Events
Visit our Events page to see upcoming Cake4Kids events!
Join us for our annual benefit, October 2026!
October 3-12: National online silent auction
October 8: Benefit dinner and live auction (Palo Alto, CA)
Photos from Past Events
Visit our Photo Gallery
Cake4Kids In the News
Click a story below or visit the News page to read more!
Give a listen to Cake4Kids Ambassador Monica Zaknoun as she chats with The Beautiful City Project podcast host David Fiorello.
My Carolina on CBS17 speaks with Cake4Kids Raleigh-Durham Triangle team about the impact of delivering smiles and getting involved in this worthy cause.
Cake4Kids, a non-profit organization whose local chapter was formed in 2022, celebrated a milestone recently by delivering its 1000th cake to a local student.
An army of volunteers in the Triangle is baking and delivering birthday cakes to children whose life circumstances have never allowed them to experience a birthday celebration before.
Cake4Kids Coachella Valley is helping children celebrate their birthday, one cake at a time.
Listen to this short but sweet story about the difference Cake4Kids Monterey is making in the community.
The DC State Fair was a true community gathering, spotlighting all things local, including Cake4Kids.
Spotlight Chicago checks in on Cake4Kids to find out more about how a simple act of kindness can make a huge impact raising self-esteem and confidence for so many.
Longtime Fresno resident, Roberta Parks, spent her teen years in foster care and knows first-hand the emotional toll that comes when childhood trauma leads to living with a family you’ve never met before. A family who not only isn’t related but doesn’t know what you’ve endured or how to help you heal. Today, Roberta channels that experience into every cake she creates with Cake4Kids, a national nonprofit providing free birthday cakes for underserved youth. Roberta is set to bake and deliver her 700th birthday cake in the Fresno community.
“As a child in foster care, my heart was hardened, I didn’t want people to know how hurt I was inside,” Roberta explained, “when I deliver a cake I want the child’s heart to melt enough to feel worthy of a moment created just for them.” It’s in this lived experience where Roberta found her inspiration. She shares her love and talent of baking and decorating with today’s underserved youth, something she has realized helps her heal.
Volunteer bakers around the country are stirring the batter and spreading the icing to ensure that at-risk kids living in foster care, shelters, and group homes have a birthday or graduation cake.
While bakers need a good level of decorating skill to write on the cake, they don’t have to be pros, explained Alison Bakewell, executive director of Cake4Kids, a national nonprofit that matches bakers with underprivileged kids wanting a birthday cake. She says many volunteers are at home hobby bakers and there are a couple of retired pastry chefs. However, even a box cake with canned frosting can put a much-needed smile on a kid’s face.
(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Many kids look forward to everyone gathering around a cake to sing “Happy Birthday.” One organization has a chapter in Chicago that is ensuring everyone gets something sweet on their birthday.
You might assume that every child gets a birthday cake on their special day. But sometimes, that’s not what happens. Cake4Kids tries to fill that gap for children that may otherwise go without.
“It’s inconceivable to me that a child might not get this recognition on their birthday,” said Coachella Valley Cake4Kids ambassador Ray Biller. “But many children in our community don’t. It’s like a wake-up call, and it’s at the heart of what we do. We make these kids smile and build their self-esteem.
Sometimes the biggest impact can come from things that are so small and one teenager is making things just a little sweeter for those who need it the most.
Whether it's pies, cupcakes, cookies, or chocolate cake topped with fresh berries, these desserts look like they would be behind a glass case inside a high-end bakery.
However, they are not.
They are made by 17-year-old Ishaan Sharma, an ambassador for Cake4Kids.
This week’s “The Smile Project” Service Spotlight highlights two of my favorite things: service and baking! Meet Alison Bakewell, Executive Director of Cake4Kids a California-based organization that operates across 19 U.S. states.
Every day Cake4Kids is changing this reality, providing at-risk youth with positive, critical childhood experiences that build their self-esteem and help guide them toward a bright future—their very own cake in celebration of birthdays, graduations, adoptions, and academic awards. The simplest gesture of being seen and celebrated makes a world of difference.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Across the country -- and here in Chicago -- there is an army of bakers.
Their mission? To put smiles on the faces of kids going through rough times.
The bakers are part of a nationwide organization called Cake4Kids. The Chicago chapter recently delivered its 1,000th cake. CBS 2 met one of the bakers as she was making her latest treat.
Lisa Swanson is making a birthday cake for a child she will never meet. "This particular young lady wanted basketball, so I decided to make it look like a basketball."
Swanson is a volunteer baker for Cake4Kids. It's a national network of bakers who make treats for children in difficult circumstances like those in foster care. "That's a need that needs to get filled, and I'm happy to do a teeny tiny part," Swanson said.
The Cake 4 Kids program matches volunteer bakers with foster children and at-risk youth to gift free birthday cakes.
SEASIDE, Calif. (KION) - Cake4Kids is spreading smiles to underserved kids and frosting to cakes in Monterey County. On Tuesday, the non-profit delivered its 1,000 cakes.
"Kids need to know that they're loved and valued, and I think that's what these cakes are doing," says Jen Ibarra, the volunteer ambassador for Cake4Kids.
Cake4Kids says it's the little things that mean the world to kids who don't grow up with the simple luxuries in life.
DC News Now showcases Cake4Kids Northern Virginia and shares the impact of our service for underserved youth.
In this episode, Dan Winter and Amy Vodarek discuss how Cake4Kids makes birthdays memorable for kids across the U.S.
Allison Bakewell is the executive director for Cake4Kids, a multistate volunteer-powered organization that delivers free custom birthday cakes to at-risk children and youth around the country.
Cake4Kids' unique business model ensures birthday cakes are baked and delivered to kids in foster care, kinship care, group homes, survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, and those living in low-income housing with or without parents, or experiencing homelessness.
Many organizations deliver flowers, fruit, packages and personal messages, but one in Northern Virginia delivers love – along with cakes.
Libby Gruender founded Cake4Kids in California 13 years ago to provide homemade cakes to local children on their birthdays. Volunteers expanded the nonprofit across the state, baking and delivering cakes to children who otherwise might not have one.
Cake4Kids partners with schools, agencies and individuals to serve children who are in foster care, low-income homes or experiencing homelessness or other difficulties.
Fair Oaks resident Mary Campbell read about the organization while looking for more to do close to home. “For a lot of these children, it may be the first cake they ever received,” she said.
For Campbell’s kids, volunteering was essential when her husband was an active Navy captain and they were moving frequently. “It's a great way to help them have roots, which is hard when you're a military child.”
She asked Cake4Kids leadership if she could start a chapter in Virginia. After more than a year of logistics and paperwork, Campbell founded Cake4Kids Northern Virginia in April 2019, the first chapter outside of California.
Thousands of children around the DMV experience their birthdays without a birthday cake. In fact, some say they have never received one. That's why one Fairfax county nonprofit called Cake4Kids is working to change that.
It's something you might not think of, but unfortunately it happens all the time.
"It never occurred to me that children go without a birthday cake and that broke my heart," said Mary Campbell, owner of nonprofit Cake4Kids. "It's homeless children, it's children in domestic violence shelters, it's foster children, it's children in immigration services, and it's children with free and reduced lunch. We do a lot of Title I schools."
That's why Campbell is making a difference in her Fairfax County kitchen through her nonprofit.
"I thought, 'How would I feel if it was my child's birthday and I wasn't able to provide something?' So I wanted to be able to bring something here," Campbell said.
A local nonprofit organization is celebrating a milestone.
Cake4Kids of Northern Utah recently delivered its 1,000th cake to a child in need.
Becky Carroll began the northern Utah chapter in 2021 as a way to honor the memory of her grandparents who dedicated their lives to helping foster children. They passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I just wanted a way to honor their service,” Carroll said.
Cake4Kids delivers homemade birthday cakes to children who likely would not receive a cake on their special day without these donations.
The creations are intricate and no request from a child is impossible.
Sweetest Surprise
65 Degree Magazine, by Cailtin Fillmore
Everyone has a birthday—a special day dedicated to the moment that they entered this world. Birthdays carry symbolic significance and are celebrated with enthusiasm in most global cultures. But many children living in Monterey County do not experience the warmth, love, and individualized celebrations that most of us enjoy on our birthdays.
Cake4Kids began in 2010 with a sweet and simple mission: making sure that all children can celebrate their birthdays with cake. Since then, the nonprofit has delivered 40,000 cakes to children in refugee camps, group homes, foster care, and other settings associated with the 750 Cake4Kids partner agencies across the country. In Monterey County, children have blown out candles on 700 Cake4Kids creations since Jen Ibarra took the leap to start a local chapter of the nonprofit in 2020.
Ready to Help?
Donate today or sign up to volunteer with Cake4Kids!