Lunchbox cakes are fun to surprise your kids with a delicious and creative treat at lunchtime. Adults who want to dress up their work lunches can also use these. Korean lunchbox cakes or bento cakes are known for being super cute, and they have become popular in South Korea and other parts of Asia. Today, we'll show you how to make your very own!

Jump to:

• What Are Lunchbox Cakes or Bento Cakes?
• Why Make a Lunchbox Cake?
• 🥘Tools and Ingredients:
• 🔪 How Do You Make a Homemade Lunchbox Cake?
• How to Decorate Lunchbox Cakes
• How to Pack Lunchbox Cakes
• 💭Tips and Tricks
• FAQs
• Lunchbox Cakes

What Are Lunchbox Cakes or Bento Cakes?

Lunchbox cakes, or bento cakes, are mini-cakes that can be eaten on the go. They're usually made in smaller cake pans or even muffin tins. However, you can use any type of cake batter that you desire.

In Korea, these are common fare for school lunches and family outings on weekends. They're usually served in small containers and eaten cold or at room temperature.

Why Make a Lunchbox Cake?

Lunchbox cakes are not only a fun and cute cake that you can eat or even give to a loved one. Kids will absolutely enjoy these. Instead of making a full-sized cake, which is too large for most kids' lunchboxes, you bake a small one and place it in an extra-small container to surprise them.

Then, you decorate the cake—whatever works best for your aesthetic! The result is a cute little treat that will make anyone smile.

What's great about these cakes is that, if you make them for yourself, they are small enough to satisfy any sugar cravings you might have but not too big to make you feel guilty about eating them!

🥘Tools and Ingredients:

Make your own bento or lunchbox cakes for your family or for yourself with just a few basic ingredients and tools and a little time in the kitchen.

For the cake:

• 180g or 1 ½ cups of flour
• 1 cup or 198g granulated sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons or 85g butter, softened
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup or 113g milk, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 8 tablespoons or 113g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ½ to 3 cups or 283g to 340g of confectioners' sugar
• 2 to 4 tablespoons or 28g to 57g of milk

For decorating:

• 2 6 inch cake pans
• Spatula
• Cake turntable (optional)
• Pink food color
• Daisy icing decorations

🔪 How Do You Make a Homemade Lunchbox Cake?

You can use the recipe for the cake below, or you can try making something similar at home with your favorite cake batter recipe. To make these easy lunchbox cakes, just fill each cup in your cake with batter, then bake them as normal. After they've cooled completely, decorate with some frosting.

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Combine the baking powder, sugar, flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the softened butter and mix until the mixture is crumbly.
4. Whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla in a separate bowl.
5. Add to the dry ingredients mixture in two additions, mixing well the wet and dry ingredients in between.
6. Scoop half of the mixture into one pan and the rest into the other pan.
7. Bake the cupcakes for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned.
8. Remove the Korean lunchbox cakes from the oven and let them cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes.
9. Gently remove them out of the pan and place them on a rack to finish cooling completely.

To make the lunchbox cake frosting:

1. In a bowl, mix the butter and powdered sugar at low speed with a spoon or an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and 1 tbsp of the milk and mix well.
2. Beat in just enough of the remaining milk to smooth out the frosting and make it spreadable, then stop beating. Add food coloring or gel if desired.

How to Decorate Lunchbox Cakes

The beauty of this lunchbox cake recipe is that it doesn't have to look professionally done. Rather, they are cute and whimsical. There is definitely no need to be an expert at cake decorating to make your own Korean lunchbox cake.

If you're not very good with piping elaborate designs, you can use pre-made icing decorations that you can buy at grocery stores, craft stores, and online. You can use hearts, flowers, and even rainbows and unicorns!

Make sure to let your cake cool before adding decorations. If you don't, they could melt together or drip down the sides of your cake while it's still warm—and nobody wants that! Even if you're using store-bought frosting or whipped cream, make sure it's at least room temperature before applying it to your cake.

If you're making something more complicated than just frosting on top (like fondant flowers), consider using something like edible glue spray instead of piping gel or edible glitter. This will help keep the cake and decorations in place and make sure nothing falls off before lunchtime!

To decorate:

1. Prepare your frosting. You can add food gel or color to your frosting at this point.
2. Cover the bento cake with frosting using a spatula.
3. Add your decorations!

How to Pack Lunchbox Cakes

For the cakes, you can use any kind of lunchbox or disposable take-out container. To avoid the cake moving around inside, make sure it's large enough for the cake but not too large.

In order to prevent the mini lunchbox cake from drying out while it is in the box, I recommend using a piece of parchment paper or even gift tissue paper. It also helps to add a splash of color to the overall design.

💭Tips and Tricks

When you're trying to decorate a lunchbox cake, you might be tempted to go overboard. Here are some lunchbox cake baking and decorating tips and tricks to help you:

• If you don't have the right tools, it's just going to be messy! Instead of using a knife to cut out shapes in your cake, try using cookie cutters. You can get some pretty cool ones at the grocery store or online—just make sure they're sturdy enough for cake!

• If you want to decorate a lunchbox cake but don't want crumbs everywhere or have time for intricate designs, consider using frosting instead of fondant. The frosting gives you more control over the shape and texture of your design, so it's especially great for beginners or anyone who just wants something simple.

• Don't forget about color! It may seem obvious, but if you're going for a specific look or theme with your small cakes, make sure you coordinate everything from food coloring to decorations so that everything matches perfectly.

For more amazing cake ideas, check out this mirror glaze cakes recipe and this delicious strawberry crunch cake.

FAQs

What size is a lunch-box cake?

Lunch-box cake is typically 3 to 4 inches in size and made up of 2 to 3 tiers. It weighs around 350 grams and is small enough to fit in a takeout box.

How to make-ahead lunchbox cakes?

To make-ahead lunchbox cake prepare the cake layers in advance and freeze them in an air tight container. Prepare your frosting and store it in fridge, it can last up to a month in fridge and up to 3 months in a freezer.

At the time of assembling the cake, transfer the cake layers from freezer to fridge overnight and bring it to room temperature. Thaw your frosting and give it a good stir to get the right consistency. Then frost your cake and decorate it.

How to store lunchbox cakes?

You can store frosted lunchbox cake in an airtight container in fridge up to a week.

How many people does a bento cake feed?

Bento cake being small in size can feed up to two people.