Not just a recipe book, Betty Crocker Baking Basics is a one-stop beginner''s guide for new bakers, with friendly easy-to-follow directions, 360 photos, features and lots of tips designed to make baking feel easy and fun.
* BC Baking Basics is the companion title to Betty Crocker Cooking Basics 2e, which will be release in Fall 08, with the same lay-flat wiro format and price point.
* The titles features 90 simple and popular baked goods, including Lemon Bars, Peanut Butter Cookies, Tres Leches Cake, Red Velvet Cupcakes, Fresh Apple Pie, Three-Berry Tart, Banana Bread, Cornbread, Almond-Poppy Seed Muffins, Pizza Dough, Four-Grain Batter Bread, Strawberry Shortcake, Hot Fudge Sundae Cake, Fresh Peach Cobbler, Molten Chocolate Cake, Best-Ever Lemon Meringue Pie, and Creme Brulee.
* Design and voice appeals to today''s young bakers: Up-to-date information and photos cover contemporary topics like the best equipment to buy (as well as a "wish list" for people who want to buy a few special tools). Features like "What Went Wrong" maintain a casual approach to baking designer to appeal to new bakers looking more to bake as a fun activity to enjoy with friends or with your kids. The conversational tone will sound more like a sister or a friend rather than Mom.
* 360 color photos include 90 beauty shots and 270 how-to and ID shots. Every recipe will have a finished photo and a how-to shot.
* Special baking features employ how-to photos and tips to cover basics baking techniques such as frosting and decorating a cake, rolling out pie crust, and kneading and shaping bread dough.

The One Cookbook You Need to Fix All Your Favorite Treats!

Everybody loves homemade cookies, cakes, pies and muffins. If you want to start baking these treats but aren''t quite sure how, then Betty Crocker Baking Basics is the cookbook for you. Inside, you''ll find easy recipes for all your favorites, from Peanut Butter Cookies, Carrot Cake and Pumpkin Pie to Caramel Sticky Rolls, Berry Cheesecake and Molten Chocolate Cakes. For each recipe, illustrated techniques and goof-proof instructions guide you step by step to delicious results—even if you''ve never baked before. You also get lots of helpful pointers and information that demystify basic skills and help you start baking with confidence.

• 90 easy recipes show how to fix your favorite baked treats

• How-to photographs for each recipe illustrate key steps

• "101" sections explain the basics of cookies, cakes, muffins and more

• Recipes range from simple snacks to showstoppers like Chocolate Soufflé

• An illustrated guide covers essential baking equipment and techniques

• Every recipe includes cooking times, nutrition information and high-altitude baking instructions

Betty Crocker, 1921 In 1921, Betty Crocker was created because of a contest that was part of a promotion for Gold Medal Flour. The company needed a name to sign to the letter, accompanying the prize of flour sack pincushions, sent to the thousands of customers that successfully completed a puzzle. They chose the family name of an early director of the Company, William G. Crocker, and the name Betty for its warm and approachable feel. The signature was voted the most distinctive of several submitted by female employees. The pincushion promotion set off a flood of inquiries for reliable and creative cooking advice. In 1924, Betty Crocker was on a local Minneapolis radio program called "Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air." The response to the show was positive and it joined the NBC network lineup in 1927. Over the next quarter century, The Cooking School "graduated" more than one million listeners. During the Great Depression, Betty Crocker found ways to help families maintain an adequate diet with low wages and relief foods. In the 1930's and 1940's, Betty Crocker published the meal-planning booklet "Meal Planning on a Limited Budget" and used the booklets and the radio to provide helpful hints to homemakers to make the most of war rationed foods. In 1945, Betty Crocker was pronounced the "First Lady of Food," in a survey of best-known women in America, following First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1947, the Betty Crocker Ginger Cake mix was introduced and the name was transformed into a brand name distinguishing a nationally distributed family of products. The growing line of baking mix was an instant hit. In the 1950's, the red spoon logo appeared on the cake mixes and became one of the most recognized brand logos in the world and is a symbol of quality, convenience and reliability. It was also during this time that Betty Crocker moved on to television, hosting her own programs and appearing on many others. During the 1950's, families were growing and needed new recipes to prepare in their suburban kitchens. Of course, Betty Crocker met that need with the first cookbook, which was followed over the years with over 200 cookbook titles and countless small format recipe magazines. The Betty Crocker Cookbook has reached an 8th edition and has sold over 27 million copies, which makes it the all time best selling cookbook in the world. There are eight Betty Crocker kitchens, which represent different parts of the American cultural tradition: the Arizona desert, California, Cape Cod, Chinatown, Hawaiian, Pennsylvania Dutch and Williamsburg. Professional home economists work in the Betty Crocker Kitchens to develop and test recipes, work with new products, and develop time saving techniques that help families cook and bake smarter. There are three camera kitchens that are used to create beautiful food photography for use in the cookbooks, magazines and recipe cards.