The Bake Sale Cookbook: Quintessential American Desserts

" More than 100 irresistible recipes that will make you the star of the bake sale and the family dinner table"

An accomplished cook and cookbook author, Sally Sampson is also the mother of two school-age children and the veteran of countless bake sales. She knows what makes the perfect bake sale recipe: It's got to be portable, easy to prepare, attractive under less than perfect conditions, and it's got to taste fabulous. In "The BakeSale Cookbook: Quintessential American Desserts," every recipe -- cookies, bars, cakes, baby cakes and cupcakes, pies, quick breads, muffins, coffee cakes, even Lemonade Three Ways -- meets these demanding criteria.

Did your child tell you at 8 P.M. she needed a contribution for the third grade fund-raiser the next morning? Try one of the variations on classic Crisp Rice Treats or Seven-Layer Bars. Baking for a more sophisticated community event? Gretchen Taylor's Three-Layer Mint Brownies, Buttermilk-Glazed Apple Cake Studded with Coconut and Walnuts, or Ginger Pear Pie will sell out in no time. Are you contributing dessert for a potluck dinner this weekend? Bring a Banana Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache or Black Chocolate Cake with Caramel Icing and there won't be any leftovers.

With ideas on how to adapt recipes for specific holidays and kids' birthday parties and essential information about transporting, serving, and displaying your precious baked cargo, "The BakeSale Cookbook" is a taste-tempting and essential collection of all-American desserts.

The author will donate 25% of her royalties to Kid2Kid, a nonprofit organization that arranges for frequently hospitalized children to give gifts and support to children presently in thehospital.