Donuts Trivia for Kids
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95 free Donuts Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This donuts trivia for kids is a sweet, easy quiz for players aged around 8 to 12 (and the grown-ups who share their dozen). It covers where donuts came from (Dutch settlers, a teenage sailor who claimed to invent the hole, and the 1920s spelling shortcut that gave us 'donut'), the big chains kids know (Krispy Kreme, Dunkin', Tim Hortons and their Munchkins and Timbits), donuts in cartoons and movies, and the different kinds you can order: glazed, jelly, cruller, Long John, cider donut and Boston cream. It also travels the world: churros in Spain, beignets in New Orleans, sufganiyot at Hanukkah, paczki in Poland, malasadas in Hawaii, oliebollen on Dutch New Year's Eve, loukoumades in Greece and picarones in Peru. Nothing requires memorising dates, and every answer comes with a short explanation that adds one more fun fact. It works well for a classroom treat day, a birthday party or National Doughnut Day (the first Friday in June). Grown-ups who want the full history can try our main donuts trivia (brainpickle.app/quiz/a/donuts). Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 95 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which settlers brought 'olykoeks', or oil cakes, to New York and helped start America's love of donuts?
The Dutch
The Dutch. Their early oil cakes were solid balls, and cooks often tucked fruit or nuts into the centre, the part slowest to cook through.
Q 02Which famous author wrote about 'dough-nuts' as balls of sweet dough fried in fat, way back in 1809?
Washington Irving
Washington Irving. In his comic history of the city, dough-nuts were small balls of sweetened dough fried in hog's fat, closer to today's donut holes than to rings.
Q 03Hanson Gregory claimed he invented the ring-shaped donut in 1847 while working where?
On a ship
On a ship. Gregory said he was 16 and tired of fried cakes that stayed raw in the middle, so he cut the centre out to help them cook all the way through.
Q 04Cake donuts skip yeast and puff up in the fryer thanks to which ingredient?
Baking powder
Baking powder. It makes gas bubbles as soon as the batter gets wet and hot, so cake donuts can be fried right away instead of waiting for yeast dough to rise.
Q 05Before it became Dunkin' Donuts in 1950, the shop had what name?
Open Kettle
Open Kettle. Bill Rosenberg renamed it two years after opening, and the chain grew so big that it helped make the short spelling 'donut' popular.
Q 06Krispy Kreme was founded in 1937 in Winston-Salem in which state?
North Carolina
North Carolina. The secret recipe came from a New Orleans chef, and Vernon Rudolph and two partners delivered their first batches of donuts in a 1936 Pontiac.
Q 07Krispy Kreme's famous glowing red sign lights up to tell passers-by what?
Hot donuts are coming off the line
Hot donuts are coming off the line. The sign reads 'Hot Now', and newer shops have tunnel ovens so they can keep it lit, and the donuts warm, all day long.
Q 08Dunkin' was founded in 1950 in Quincy, a suburb of which big city?
Boston
Boston. Bill Rosenberg had been selling meals to factory workers and noticed that coffee and donuts were his best sellers, so he opened a shop built around those two.
Q 09Dunkin' sells its donut holes under what name?
Munchkins
Munchkins. They began as a thrifty way to use up the little balls of dough cut from the centre of ring donuts, and became a menu item of their own.
Q 10Which ice cream chain shares a parent company with Dunkin'?
Baskin-Robbins
Baskin-Robbins. The pairing began in 1990, when the ice cream chain's owner bought Dunkin' Donuts, and many shops now sell both brands under one roof.
Q 11Tim Hortons is named after its co-founder, a star player in which sport?
Ice hockey
Ice hockey. Tim Horton won four Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and like many players of his day he wanted a second career, so he opened a donut shop in 1964.
Q 12What does Tim Hortons call its donut holes?
Timbits
Timbits. Roll Up the Rim has since given away hundreds of cars, but when the contest began in 1986 the biggest prize on offer was a snack box of them.
Q 13National Doughnut Day began in Chicago in 1938 as a fundraiser during which hard time?
The Great Depression
The Great Depression. The Salvation Army launched the day to raise money for people in need and to honor the volunteers who had fried donuts for American soldiers in World War I.
Q 21Which US president gave a famous speech in West Berlin in 1963 that shares its name with a jam donut?
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy. His line 'Ich bin ein Berliner' later inspired a popular legend that he had called himself a jam donut, but his audience understood him perfectly.
Q 22Sufganiyot, round jam-filled donuts, are eaten during which Jewish festival?
Hanukkah
Hanukkah. Foods fried in oil recall the miracle of the Temple oil, and the filled donut itself came to Israel with Polish Jewish immigrants.
Q 23Polish paczki are traditionally eaten on 'Fat Thursday', the last Thursday before what?
Lent
Lent. The idea was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house before the weeks of fasting began.
Q 14In which country did the Salvation Army's 'Doughnut Lassies' fry donuts for WWI soldiers?
France
France. Freshly baked goods were hard to provide from huts near the front lines, so two Salvation Army volunteers fried donuts instead, and they were an instant hit with the troops.
Q 15In The Simpsons, Homer works as a safety inspector at what kind of place?
A nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant. The joke is that the donut-loving Homer is completely unqualified for the job and often neglects his duties or falls asleep at his post.
Q 16What color are the sprinkle donuts that Homer Simpson loves?
Pink
Pink. Twelve real 7-Eleven stores were once dressed up as the show's Kwik-E-Mart and sold pink sprinkle donuts alongside cans of Buzz Cola.
Q 17American soldiers in World War I, who ate donuts by the million, went by which nickname?
Doughboys
Doughboys. The name has nothing to do with donuts: it was already in use decades before the war, and nobody is sure where it came from.
Q 18Sprinkles are called 'jimmies' in which part of the United States?
New England
New England. Nobody knows for sure where the word comes from, though one American candy company claims it invented the sprinkles and named them after a worker.
Q 19A box of 13 donuts instead of the usual 12 goes by which old name?
A baker's dozen
A baker's dozen. Medieval English bakers could be punished for selling underweight bread, so one old story says they threw in an extra loaf to be safe.
Q 20A German Berliner is a jam donut that is missing what?
A hole in the middle
A hole in the middle. The solid centre is what leaves room for the jam, and a recipe for it already appears in one of the first cookbooks printed on a Gutenberg press.
Q 24Malasadas, Portuguese fried donuts, are nicknamed after which US state where they're popular?
Hawaii
Hawaii. Portuguese workers who came to labor on the islands' sugar plantations brought the recipe, and a Honolulu bakery turned it into a local craze in the 1950s.
Q 25Oliebollen, sugar-dusted dough balls sold at winter street stalls, are traditionally eaten on which night?
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve. For 25 years a national newspaper sent tasters out at the end of each year to rank the stalls and name the best one in the country.
Q 26Loukoumades, the fried dough balls of Greece and Turkey, are usually soaked in what?
Honey or syrup
Honey or syrup. In Turkey they are traditionally cooked in huge batches and handed out free to neighbours and passers-by to remember a loved one.
Q 27Italian zeppole are traditionally eaten on March 19, the feast day of which figure?
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph. Italy celebrates his feast day as Father's Day too, so the pastries are sold on the streets and handed over as gifts.
Q 28Churros, the ridged fried dough sticks from Spain and Portugal, are often dipped in what?
Hot chocolate
Hot chocolate. In Spain they are dunked stick by stick into a cup of it, and the ridges come from piping the dough through a star-shaped tip.
Q 29Beignets, square fried dough covered in powdered sugar, are the official state donut of which state?
Louisiana
Louisiana. French settlers brought the recipe in the 1700s, and New Orleans cafes still serve the hot squares for breakfast with milky chicory coffee.
Q 30Which state made a custard-filled donut named after its biggest city the official state donut?
Massachusetts
Massachusetts. The Boston cream donut is a hand-sized copy of Boston cream pie, which the state had already named its official dessert.