Birthday cake delivery nonprofit hits major milestone

By John Franchi

March 6, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY — 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.

Cakes with different themes like bowling, Disney, and Lego are just a few examples of the delicious treats that helped children smile on their special day.

The effort requires a small army of volunteer bakers.

What began with about a dozen volunteers two years ago has grown to 250.

“We have a lot of moms like Alyssa and I that can't do a lot of things outside of the house, but I can bake a cake and deliver it to someone and still fit in time for my family,” Carroll said.

She was referring to Allysa Johanson who baked a candy-filled cake for a teenager.

Johanson has baked and donated about a dozen cakes since joining Cake4Kids.

“It warms your heart,” Johanson said. “There is nothing quite like knowing that somebody else is going to hopefully have that wow moment when they get their own cake.”

The cake baked by Johanson was delivered to the Children’s Service Society, a Utah organization with several missions including providing services to children in need of permanent families and assisting families caring for a relative’s child.

“I think about the girl that cake is going to and it almost brings me to tears because I know what it will mean to her,” said Alyssa Craven, the grand families director at Children’s Service Society.

Cake4Kids partners with several organizations like CSS to identify children in need of a birthday cake.

“We thought it would be perfect to get cakes into homes where children are usually experiencing trauma and working on healing,” Craven said. “The caregivers – the last thing on their mind is putting together a dessert.”

While volunteer bakers never get to meet the children who receive their delicious works of art, they know the time they spend in the kitchen is making a difference and that’s why they are ready to bake their next 1,000 cakes and beyond.

“I can't go in and stop bad things from happening, but you can spread joy,” Carroll said. “It’s really important to do little things that make people happy and that just brightens the world.”

Cake4Kids serves children in Cache, Box Elder, Weber, Davis, Tooele and Salt Lake counties.