Everyone’s gotta eat, and kids who have a chance to prepare meals are more likely to try new foods. While you could spend time searching recipes online to print out for the kids, little chefs in training may enjoy an actual hardcovered book to flip through just like their parents used to! We’ve included a variety of cookbooks specific for the chefs with a sweet tooth who want to bake, as well as some combination cookbooks and fun-themed picks. No matter the cooking or baking adventures ahead, there’s a cookbook to get you through (and great recipe photos to get you drooling!)
Jump To:
Best Baking Cookbooks
Best Complete Meal Cookbooks
Best Themed Cookbooks
Best Baking Cookbooks
Often the first kitchen skill that interests children is baking. There are few store-bought treats that can compare with warm cookies, brownies, and other delicious home baked goodies. Baking is also a skill that’s rich in opportunities to learn science, from careful control of time and temperature, to precise measurements, to an early understanding of the chemistry involved in browning, rising, and other in-oven transformations.
Families who watch the Great British Bake Off together will remember Nadiya from season six, and if this is the first you’re hearing about her career as an author, you’re in for a real treat. Part fairy-tale, part cookbook, the whole family will be engrossed in tales of truly lifelike gingerbread cookies, Hansel and Gretel approved sweets, and more.
This New York Times Best Seller is also a popular choice on Amazon – and we can see why. The Food Network knows food and with this book, your kids will learn something too! The book contains 110 recipes, along with food trivia. Some have noted the recipes are a little more complex than other cookbooks, so this may be a pick for the older bakers.
This baking book is perfect for kiddos ages 6 and up to help them celebrate those special milestones like the first day of school, birthdays, or fun movie nights and family road trips. The recipes are modified to include some parental involvement for safety reasons like oven usage, but overall, parents say this book helps young chefs bake independently. Plus, it’ll keep them busy baking with 75 recipes to get through and great photos!
The American Girl books still have all age fans, and this cookbook full of delicious recipes for sweet treats is sure to find an audience with both kids, moms, and grandmas. Some of the recipes do skew towards more confident or advanced bakers, so this is an ideal birthday gift for kids over age 9, who understand that some parental involvement is still inevitable. Makes a great batch of treats for a slumber party.
If you are looking for super simple recipes to bake with little ones, this cookbook is the pick! Choose from 55 recipes that use less than 10 ingredients, have no fancy equipment, and are labeled based on difficulty.
The birthday gift that launched a thousand dreams of celebrity chef stardom, Easy Bake ovens have been around for decades, and there are tons of writers, bloggers, and bakers who have a favorite recipe to make in the pint-size pastry shop.
Best Complete Meal Cookbooks
Kid friendly recipes designed to suit a range of ages and cooking abilities make this bestselling book from America’s Test Kitchen an excellent choice for families with multiple children. From introductory recipes designed to teach skillful measuring and pouring, like layered yogurt parfaits, to more complex fare like omelettes, each recipe teaches foundational skills for a lifetime of cooking and eating well.
For talented young cooks with an adventurous palette, recipes from patés to pickling are accessibly laid out in this beautifully photographed cookbook. Fans of the MasterChef shows in particular are sure to appreciate curated recipes from memorable contestants.
Foodies young and old love the copper-toned magical wonderland that is the Williams-Sonoma store, and kids who want to re-create a favorite restaurant meal will find minestrone soup, alfredo sauce, and other easy to master versions of their favorite indulgences in their Cookbook for Kids.
Defeat bland veggies and the fear of getting their five-a-day with this vegetarian cookbook with recipes that are as beautiful as they are tasty. A food blogger with an eye for simple, beautiful, indulgent vegetarian meals, Gleeson’s “For Adults” version of this cookbook is also a treat.
Children who love to read will adore this introductory level cookbook, which covers every step involved in each recipe, along with tons of foundational knowledge for beginners, like understanding temperature, the proper ways to measure, keeping clean while working, and more.
Best Themed Cookbooks
Tap into the fantastical world of Dr Seuss with the Green Eggs and Ham cookbook. Dine on “Roast Beast” and “Moose Juice” and more nonsensical treats that are sure to get kids laughing. Perfect for picky eaters, reluctant readers, and all in between.
Take your fictional tea parties from imaginary to simple, elegant, and REAL with this Disney Princess-themed tea party book. Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Tiana, and more Disney princesses will walk your little one through baking tasty treats to fun savory snacks.
Food is something craftable IRL, and with often delicious results to show for it. Whether you’re gearing up for a Minecraft themed birthday or just enticing little gamers into the kitchen, it’s easy to build new shared interests with these tasty, easy to master recipes.
While certainly not a center piece at every family meal, spooky Halloween parties and gross birthdays for slime enthusiasts will be made much more memorable with the additions of these horrifying recipes.
While Ma and Pa Ingalls may have needed to trap and clean game, grow their own produce, and spend hours laboriously preparing meals, it’s still possible to recreate all the deliciously described treats from the famous Little House on the Prairie book series, without having to buy a manual wheat grinder.
Disney offers a plethora of princess themed cookbooks, to be sure, but Tiana’s story is so steeped in the food traditions of New Orleans that this one is simply a step above the rest, both in terms of variety of skill level it caters to, and how easy it is to bring the film’s recipes to life.
