Cake4Kids: Kentucky baker brings hope to underserved kids through custom birthday treats

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (InvestigateTV) - A Louisville baker inspired by her experience with foster care is making sure at-risk kids have something sweet on their special day.

Jeanna Cochran doesn’t consider herself an expert baker.

“When you are a part of the community of people who decorate, it can be pretty intimidating,” she said. “They are all so beautiful, you just think, ‘I’m never going to get that good.’”

Cochran is humble, but she’s pretty good at baking and decorating cakes.

The reason Cochran bakes is personal. She’s a mother of five. She discovered her passion a few years ago when a little boy named Abl came into her family’s life through foster care.

“He came to us when he was six. He had never had a birthday party. Never had a birthday cake. He was homeless,” Cochran said. “These children who are in foster care or are homeless, they don’t have a whole lot of good things to talk about. He bragged to his friends. He took pictures to school of his friends of his birthday. It makes them forget for a little bit and gives them stories to relate to their peers.”

While the Cochrans were fostering Abl, they decided they had more room in their hearts. In 2018 they opened their home to newborn twins, fostering Hadley and Harper.

The family felt complete so, they adopted the trio in 2020.

“Looking around your home, I can tell there is a lot of love,” WAVE News Anchor Maira Ansari said. “You want to share that with people.”

“Yes, very much so,” Cochran said.

Cochran saw how happy Abl was when he got his first birthday cake, and she wanted to give other kids that same feeling.

“I felt like I could kinda do more,” Cochran said.

That’s when she joined Cake4Kids, a national non-profit made up of volunteers who make free custom homemade birthday cakes to children in need.

Cochran loved the mission so much that she became Cake4Kids Central Kentucky Ambassador.

“Cake4Kids’ mission is to bake birthday cakes, treats, cupcakes, cookies for at-risk youth,” Cochran said. “That could be foster care, homeless, low income, refugees, victims of domestic violence.”

Cake4Kids, gets its requests through an agency or organization it partners with that serves children. A case worker will put in a request for a treat on behalf of a child, only sharing the child’s age and interests.

That’s when the bakers get creative.

“One that I’ve done, she wanted a cookies and cream cake with an Oreo theme,” Cochran said. “One of the most recent ones I did was a Bluey cake. My daughters are fans of Bluey, but I might be more! I went and got their little Jeep and a Bluey and Bingo and made a road around the cake.”

The volunteer bakers never meet the children they’re baking for, and that’s okay with Cochran.

“It’s important to me that they go ‘Somebody does care about me,’” Cochran said. “‘I can get my wish come true.’”

She saw it herself when her son finally felt like his birthday was special.

“With the trauma that he went through, it made him forget that just for a little bit,” Cochran said. “I think it does that with all these kids. That’s where my feel-good comes from. Just knowing that it will bring them joy and happiness, maybe possibly a core memory and being a part of that brings me immeasurable joy.”

Cake4Kids has been around since 2010, and they have chapters all around the country. These bakers pay for all of the supplies themselves. If this story inspired you to bake for Cake4Kids or if you are with an agency that works with at-risk youth and would like to partner with Cake4Kids, click here.