9+ Places to Find Unique DIY Food Gift Kits

If you're looking for the perfect holiday, birthday, anniversary, or just because gift for the person in your life who loves a good DIY kitchen project, then boy are you in the right place.

When you give one of these DIY food gift kits to someone, you're not just giving them something they'll use once. You're giving the gift of ~an experience~ as well as some thoughtfully packaged tools and ingredients to learn skills they'll have forever.

DIY food kits make the perfect gift for anyone who loves trying something new in the kitchen. There are DIY baking kits, DIY cooking kits, DIY cocktail kits, DIY cheese kits, pasta kits, hot sauce kits, and so much more.

And look, I don't know your relationship to the person you're shopping for here, but these DIY food gift kits can be great together experiences. If you're gifting this to a long distance loved one, consider buying one for you and one for your friend, then meeting over Zoom to make them. (And if you're shopping for your kid's teacher, maybe don't do that, that's weird).

What to consider when picking out the perfect DIY food kit to gift:

• Does it include unique ingredients? If you're buying a cheesemaking kit that comes with citric acid and "cheese salt" (aka kosher salt) you're getting ripped off. Look for kits with unique ingredients — or a unique combination of ingredients — that would be hard to find (or annoying to find) without the kit. For example, a cheesemaking kit with rennet, cheese cultures, and a cheese press is a great DIY gift kit!
• Does it have unique tools? Consider how well stocked your gift recipient's kitchen is! A great DIY food gift kit comes with a tool (or tools) that are necessary for making the recipe but that aren't ones your gift recipient likely already has.
• How difficult or time consuming is it to make? If you're buying a DIY cooking gift for someone who's pretty comfortable in the kitchen, you'll want to make sure it's not something too easy for them. If you're buying a DIY cookie decorating kit for kids who can barely color within the lines, you'll want something that requires a little less technical precision.
• Perishability. Most of the DIY food gift kits on this list have primarily non-perishable items. But some DIY cooking and baking kits do include food that will go bad or that needs to be used/made within a few days to a week of being opened. You'll want to make sure your gift recipient will be home for delivery and will appreciate a cooking or baking project that needs to be done ASAP!
• How much will they have to buy on their own? A tool-based DIY food gift kit is great because once they have the tools they can use them over and over again. But it does mean they can't get started until they hit up the grocery store. An ingredient-based kit is great because they can get started right away — but only if they have the right tools for the job. The best DIY food gift kits also provide the gift of convenience by including as many of the required tools and ingredients as possible.

Check out my roundup of food gifts you can ship by mail for thoughtful, unique food gifts to send that require a little less DIY elbow grease!

**Some of the items on this list I requested or received as free PR gifts/review samples. I wouldn't include them here unless I really loved them and thought you would too.

1. Salty Seattle — Colorful pasta dough for homemade pasta art

Update 3/2023 — Unfortunately it looks like the rainbow dough kits are no longer available on Salty Seattle's website, however she has many other colorful pasta items to choose from!

Know someone who loves playing with their food? Who makes their own homemade pasta? These colorful pasta dough kits from the queen of rainbow pasta herself, Linda Miller Nocholson aka @SaltySeattle, will be a real treat for your pasta loving friends.

Each kit includes 6 colorful balls of pasta dough for 12 servings of homemade pasta (adding black pasta dough is extra). The kit also includes instructions for rolling, portioning, cooking, and freezing the dough. Not included? A pasta roller and cutter. So this DIY kit is best for someone who already has those on hand.

2. Uncommon Goods — Every kind of DIY food and drink kit you can imagine

Uncommon Goods is an online market place focused on supporting small businesses, creators, and makers. They have a huge selection of DIY cooking, baking, and drink kits available — including some from other brands mentioned on this list!

You'll definitely want to head over to see all the DIY gift kits they have to offer for yourself. But they really do have everything, from raindrop cake kits to rainbow bagel kits to vegan cheesemaking kits and cookie shot decorating kits, not to mention lots of boozy 21+ options like this pumpkin ale kit and this gin making kit.

They have half a dozen DIY hot sauce kits alone!

3. Stonewall Kitchen — Baking mix and pan gift sets

Stonewall Kitchen makes incredible jams, dressings, and sauces but they also have a fantastic line of boxed baking mixes.

What I love about Stonewall Kitchen's DIY baking gift sets is that they've selected baking mixes that require pans that most people don't already have — like doughnut pans or popover pans — but that are needed to make the mix. They'll definitely appreciate the boxed mix, but they'll love not having to buy a new pan just to make it!

Stonewall Kitchen's branded pans are manufactured by Pittsburgh-based bakeware company USA Pan, which makes my favorite high-quality baking pans. The boxed mix is the gift of an experience, but the pans really are a gift that'll last forever.

4. Color My Cookie - Cookies you can paint on!**

Color My Cookie makes adorably packaged DIY cookie decorating gift sets that are perfect for kids (or adults) who like coloring books. The best part? Your gift recipient doesn't need to be an expert cookie decorator to turn these white-iced cookies into works of art.

Each themed kit comes with pre-made cookies decorated with white royal icing and an artist palate cookie with edible watercolor icing on it. To activate the water color icing and get painting, all they need to do is use the included paintbrushes to dab a bit of water on them. It's that simple!

Kits come in two sizes: MINI (2 cookies to decorate) or ORIGINAL (6 cookies to decorate). They also include sprinkles and some include additional colorful icing pre-packaged in a piping bag for any additional decorating needs.

5. Cooking Gift Set Co. — Beautifully packaged DIY food and drink kits**

With four expertly curated cooking gift sets to choose from, the aptly named Cooking Gift Set Co. delivers unique, thoughtful DIY gift sets in gorgeous packaging. Each kit comes with the key tools and select non-perishable ingredients needed to make the included recipe.

The 6-piece soup dumpling kit, for example, comes with enough agar agar to make 200 soup dumplings!

The tools are sturdy and well made, and the included recipes include lots of troubleshooting advice as well as suggestions for how to adapt or customize the recipes in the future. Because these kits are focused on the tools and not so much on the ingredients or a specific recipe, your gift recipient will be able to use the kit over and over and over again with different flavor combos every time!

• Mulled Wine (Amazon)
• Chinese Soup Dumplings (Amazon)
• Wood Smoked BBQ (Amazon)
• French Tarts (Amazon)

6. Scopa Italian Roots — Make the restaurant's iconic dishes at home

Scopa Italian Roots isn't just my favorite restaurant by celebrity chef Antonia Lofaso, it's one of my all time favorite restaurants, period. During the pandemic, Scopa began shipping DIY gift kits across the country with all of the fresh ingredients needed to make the restaurant's signature dishes at home.

When I say fresh ingredients I do mean fresh. These kits are well packed with dry ice and cooling packs to keep meat, herbs, cheese, and more fresh until delivery. The recipes are clear, well written, and easy to follow, and, most importantly, they taste just like the dishes from the restaurant. No corners cut.

I ordered the rice ball (arancini) kit for Jimmy for Christmas last year and it was worth every penny and they were so much fun to make.

BTW — this is a great gift for fans of Top Chef or fans of Food Network, where Chef Antonia has been both a contestant and a judge on various shows for years.

7. Global Grub — Compactly packaged DIY cooking and baking kits**

Global Grub's DIY food gift kits are great for learning the basics of a new cooking or baking project. From fortune cookies to sushi to ravioli and tamales, their kits include simple, straightforward recipes and a combination of the tools and ingredients needed to pull them off.

Global Grub sent me a sample of the Fortune Cookie Kit, and I particularly appreciate that it included superfine sugar, which can be a bit hard to find in America. Each of Global Grub's DIY food kits has the same thought behind it — providing the ingredients or tools that would be most tricky to find (or to find in small quantities).

These kits are really all about taking a base recipe and making it your own with different toppings or fillings (or handwritten fortunes!). So they come with some of the key things you'll need and a detailed recipe and how-to guide, but then some additional ingredients may need to be purchased separately.

8. Goldbelly — DIY cooking and baking kits from restaurants across the country

Goldbelly is best known as a platform for shipping food gifts from restaurants across the country by mail. They also have a fairly large selection of DIY food gift kits from restaurants like Mochii (New York), Gino's East (Chicago), Taquiza (Miami Beach), and Red Velvet Cupcakes (Brooklyn). Check out their full selection of kits for other fun DIY cooking, baking, and decorating gift sets!

9. FarmSteady by Brooklyn Brew Shop — DIY baking, sourdough, fermentation, and booze kits

It was so hard to pick just two of FarmSteady's dozens of DIY baking, fermentation, cheesemaking, foraging, kombucha, and booze kits to feature here. They really do just have so many to choose from!

Your gift recipient will appreciate that these kits include a fairly well balanced mix of tools and pre-portioned, shelf-stable, ready-to-use ingredients. The tools can be used over and over again, while the dry ingredients and pre-made mixes mean they don't need to do a big grocery run to get their DIY on.

The kits get hyper-specific too — they have at least half a dozen different bagel making kits, a few different focaccia kits, several different vegetable fermentation kits, etc. So you really do have your pick of what kind of DIY kit your gift recipient will appreciate most.

11. Shaker & Spoon — Everything-but-the-alcohol cocktail making kits

Shaker and Spoon is a monthly DIY cocktail kit subscription service that delivers an impeccably curated box of cocktail ingredients for unique cocktail recipes developed by award-winning expert mixologists. The boxes are packaged beautifully, and come with plenty of ingredients to make that month's drink — and a few rounds of it, too!

If you're looking for the perfect DIY cocktail gift kit, you really can't go wrong here.

Because Shaker and Spoon uses a subscription model, you can't select a specific box to gift, but you can check out their previous DIY cocktail kit boxes and see which ones are coming next — it's some seriously impressive stuff! (Shoutout to Practical Kitchen reader Lisa for putting Shaker and Spoon on my radar!)

10. King Arthur Baking — Baking recipe bundles with high quality tools and ingredients

When it comes to baking gifts, King Arthur is, well, the king. And their DIY baking bundle gift sets are right in line with the quality and accessibility the brand brings to the rest of its offerings. From cakes to breads to cookies, King Arthur has baking bundles for just about everything.

These DIY baking bundles include a mix of speciality ingredients — organic rye flour, almond flour, extracts, etc. — and high-quality baking pans and tools needed to make the recipe.

The list of available baking bundles changes frequently, so keep checking back to see what they've got in stock!

12. Fancy Sprinkles — Happy hour sprinkles and luster dust to make any drink sparkle

These DIY cocktail gift kits are perfect for anyone wants to add some sparkle to their brunch mimosa, toast to the new year over champagne that's sparkling in more ways than one, or who just loves a bit of glam in their smoothie.

Fancy Sprinkles is known primarily for, you guessed it, fancy sprinkles. But they also offer a line of edible luster dust, which they've packaged into DIY gift kits for making gorgeously sparkly drinks at home.

Each happy hour set comes with two different luster dusts and a complimentary fancy sprinkles blend for "salting" the rim. There's no recipes or flavorings included, the luster dust and sprinkles can be used with whatever cocktail (or mocktail!) they choose.

For more of my product roundups, reviews, and gift guides click here. For a master list of my favorite kitchen tools click here.