The Great American Bake Sale Book

From rich chocolate brownies to Mom's apple pie, the goodies spread out at back sales are a slice of American culture and the true showcase for America's desserts. Here's the book that shows how to make all those homey, nostalgic baked goods you just can't buy anywhere--except at a bake sale. Includes approximately 100 recipes, designed to be fool-proof, with clear step-by-step directions.

Baking is about memories: recipes handed down from generation to generation and tastes that conjure childhood—think of Proust’s madeleines or your mom’s chocolate cake. Sweets are often bound up in our emotional life as adults, too: they’re how we reward ourselves or our children, how we celebrate holidays, birthdays, and special occasions, and how we honor guests. In Baking from the Heart, more than fifty of the nation’s preeminent bakers share their recipes for cookies, cakes, and other dessert favorites, and the memories of why they hold that recipe dear. From the Apple Snacking Spice Cake that Joanna Chang made her fourth-grade teacher to show her how much she loved her to the Polvorones that were a Sunday after-church treat in Miguel Ravago’s home, these are recipes—and stories—to treasure. When James Beard Award–winner Greg Patent was a teenager, he won a trip to New York City to compete in the Pillsbury Bake-Off with his Cherry-Apricot Coconut Bars. Forty years later, his mother earned a place in that same competition with her Walnut Fudge Bars. World-renowned chocolatier Jacques Torres tucked a few pints of hand-picked Michigan blueberries into his luggage so he could again make Blueberry Dame Blanche, the jam-filled cookies he made when he was a child in France, with his aging mother. For her son Gio’s first Valentine’s Day at school, Food TV’s Gale Gand concocted Marshmallow Heart Throbs, a cupcake he could cut into the shape of a heart. When Jimmy Schmidt’s family vacationed in Wisconsin, his contribution to his mother’s Black Walnut Pound Cake were the walnuts he picked and shelled with his siblings, aided by their father who would crack the hulls by driving over them in his ’55 Chevy. Like many of the other contributors, Jimmy Schmidt serves up two recipes with reminiscences (the walnut cake and his Blueberry Slump) for our delectation. Baking from the Heart is also sweet inspiration for anyone who wants to join in The Great American Bake Sale™. When Share Our Strength—the nation’s preeminent hunger-fighting organization—joined with PARADE magazine to launch The Great American Bake Sale™ in 2003, the country’s response was overwhelming: nearly half a million people baked, bought, or sold, raising over a million dollars to end childhood hunger. (More information appears inside.) A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book benefit Share Our Strength, one of the nation’s preeminent anti-hunger agencies.

"Sandra Lee is a long-time spokeperson for Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale charity. Just look on the back of any package of Domino brand sugar and you'll find one of Sandra's recipes prominently displayed, promoting the cause. This book will be published and promoted in partnership with the Great American Bake Sale, giving it even greater reach than her books always enjoy, thanks to her two popular Food Network shows, Semi-Homemade Cooking and Money Saving Meals. Sandra's time-saving dessert recipes have long been favorites among her legions of loyal fans, who will be eagerly awaiting this publication. The estimated 120 recipes will all be photographed in gorgeous full-color"--

From the test kitchen of America’s iconic lifestyle magazine, recipes and tips for organizing a successful bake sale fundraiser—includes photos. “Mom—I need three dozen cupcakes for the school bake sale . . . tomorrow!” Here’s the book to grab when you hear those words. Good Housekeeping comes to the rescue with seventy-five tasty favorites for sure-fire fundraising success. From cupcakes to brownies, jumbo cookies to spiced nuts, these triple-tested recipes have been specially selected for this collection. You’ll find long-time favorites and fresh new ideas—all easy to make and easy to portion and package for sale. An extensive introductory chapter covers the basics of bake sales—from organizing tips to creative ideas for packaging and display.

Kanzi, the immigrant girl of Aya Khalil and Anait Semirdzhyan’s bestselling picture book The Arabic Quilt, has come to feel welcome in her American school—that is, until an entire shelf of books about immigrant kids and kids of color suddenly disappears from the school library. Upon learning that the books with kids who look like her have been banned by her school district, Kanzi descends into fear and helplessness. But her classmates support her, and together—with their teacher’s help—they hatch a plan to hold a bake sale and use the proceeds to buy diverse books to donate to libraries. The event is a big success; the entire school participates, and the local TV station covers it in the evening news. Prodded by her classmates to read the poem she has written, Kanzi starts softly but finds her voice. “You have banned important books, but you can’t ban my words,” she reads. “Books are for everyone.” The crowd chants, “No banned books! No banned books!” and the next week, the ban is reversed. Aya Khalil appends a note about how The Arabic Quilt was briefly banned from the York, Pennsylvania school system, and the backmatter also includes a recipe for baklawa, the Egyptian pastry that Kanzi prepares for the bake sale.

More than 120 quick and easy recipes for irresistible, kid-friendly treats that make for guaranteed bake sale success! For every mother who has repackaged last-minute, store-bought brownies in tinfoil, The Best Bake Sale Ever Cookbook is a godsend. Packed with simple, crowd-pleasing recipes, it’s a terrific one-stop kitchen companion for parents, kids, or anyone on the go. Cookies, brownies, breads, bars, cupcakes, muffins, cakes, pies, and more, this essential cookbook is stocked with bake sale sell-outs. Also included are helpful tips for packaging each delicious treat to ensure a beautiful presentation—and maximize sales. From chocolate-dipped fortune cookies to frosted ice cream cone cakes, these delightful recipes will inspire the baker (and fundraiser) in everyone.

Want to help make your community, your town—your world—a better place, but don’t know where to begin? How To Be An Everyday Philanthropist shows you the way. A handbook, a resource guide, a call to action, and an inspiration, it offers 330 concrete, direct ideas for making a difference—all of which have nothing to do with the size of your checkbook and everything to do with using the hidden assets that are already a part of your life. Whether you’re shopping, working, exercising, or surfing the Web, there are hundreds of ways to slip small but deeply meaningful acts of philanthropy into your life, using 330 of the most innovative and effective charitable organizations around. Have an old pair of sneakers lying around the house? Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program will recycle them into safe playground surfaces. getting rid of that old cell phone? Call to Protect will refurbish it as an emergency lifeline for abused women. Racking up frequent-flier miles? Donate them to an ill child so they can travel and get the care they need. Like to knit? Knit hats for cancer patients. Start a petition, sign a petition, send out an awareness e-mail, and network with like-minded givers and doers at Care2.com. There are ideas for giving things you might never have thought of—your hair, old prom dress, breast milk for African AIDS orphans. Ideas for using your hobbies, talents, time, trash, technology, and more. Each suggestion can be accomplished in the course of a day, most within an hour. In tough times it’s more important than ever that people and communities pull together— How To Be An Everyday Philanthropist makes it easier than ever before.