Cakes for Kids: 4 Perfectly Sized Favorites from My Name Is Yeh

Who doesn’t love cake? It’s the stuff of birthdays, weddings, and baby showers. It is nostalgic, delicious, and there’s a flavor for every palate.

Sometimes though, a thick, layered, frosted slice is just too difficult to navigate. When treating a class full of kids, serving guests who are standing and walking, or packing weekday lunches, a slab, sliver, or wedge really won’t do.

So is cake out of the question? Never! You just have to think outside of the cake pan and come up with finger-friendly alternatives. Lucky for you, city girl turned farmer’s wife and baker, Molly Yeh has oodles of yummy recipes that fit the bill. These are not your grandma’s vanilla cupcakes, either. Here are a handful (see what we did there?) of portable, uniquely scrumptious, cakey treats try:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Matcha Green Tea Frosting

Cupcakes are fitting for casual get-togethers or more formal affairs, and you could serve these amazingly simple beauties for both.

Molly’s dessert starts with chocolate cupcakes made using the famous NYC Magnolia Bakery’s decadent but super-simple recipe. The equally unassuming frosting takes these sweet babies over the top, both in taste and appearance.

You won’t need any artificial food dyes to attain the gorgeous pale spring green color of this frosting; the matcha tints and flavors the butter and powdered sugar fusion naturally. If you love the sweet, grassy, herbal taste of the tea, you will adore it whipped into buttercream frosting and paired with the rich chocolatey cakes.

Matcha does contain caffeine, so bear that in mind if you plan to serve this to kids or indulge in a midnight snack.

Pumpkin Cake + Semifreddo Push Pops

Once upon a time, a sherbet-y push pop and a cupcake fell in love; and in the autumn, they had a baby. That baby was this irresistibly adorable pumpkin spiced treat. The idea is relatively simple, but the presentation is enticing and the flavor combo will have everyone asking for seconds. 

Molly baked a perfectly sugared-and-spiced pumpkin cake and cut it into circles with push pop holders as molds. She then layered the heavenly confection with cool, creamy vanilla semifreddo, scattering rainbow sprinkles onto each layer, of course.

Your bunch would likely love it if you packed these scrumptious treats in the cooler to enjoy after fall soccer or football games. Molly has another wonderful idea as well: Load up the pops and tuck them in the freezer to have at the ready for a cake emergency! Hmmmm, what other cake and ice cream combos could we stash in there?

Frosted Red Velvet Cakies

What do you do when you can’t decide on whether to make cookies or cake?  Why, you make “cakies,” of course! The ultimate unification of sturdy, handhold-able cookie, and rich devil’s food, Molly’s cakies are a red velvet enthusiast’s dream come true!

Molly freely admits that the treats highly resemble the exterior portion of a whoopie pie. If you are so inclined, you could certainly sandwich a generous dollop of her cream cheese frosting between two cakies. We’re certain no one would mind. Or put a spin on the push pop recipe and smear semifreddo, froyo, or good old whipped topping on one cakie and then top it with another (then you can roll it around in sprinkles for good measure).

If you’re not crazy about the artificial red coloring required, there are numerous natural food dyes available that will do the trick without the dye, or try a homemade version, such as hibiscus tea, beet juice, or boiled cranberries. Note that using one of the latter will alter the flavor of the cakies.

Upside Down Plum and Olive Oil Cake

When the weather is warm and the markets are overflowing with fresh, ripe fruits and a rich, dense, icing-topped baked good sounds a bit too heavy, you can (and should) reach for a recipe like this:

Moist, tender olive oil cake baked in loaf pans and sliced into palm-sized slabs are perfect for brunch on a sunny summer morning, a spring afternoon picnic, or a homework-time snack around the kitchen table.

The comfortingly sweet, slightly lemony cake is perfectly paired with succulent slices of fresh plums positioned on the bottom of the pan à la upside down cake. Your brood will not even realize you are serving them fresh produce until they sink their teeth into a wedge.

You can swap out the plums for other juicy fruit slices or sections as well. If you didn’t have a reason to hit the farmer’s market, you do now!

The next time you are on the go and start craving a chunk of lemon chiffon or a hunk of marble (cake, that is), don’t let anybody or anything stop you. Get creative and think of a way to have your cake in your hot little hands, and eat it too!

Got any delicious cupcake / cake pop recipes that the kids love? Share your favorites with us!

All photos were taken by Molly Yeh for her blog My Name is Yeh

Tags : recipes   dessert recipes   



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