2023 Bake Sale Cook Book Recipes

As you'll recall, it takes about six months to work our way through the Old-Fashioned Bake Sale Cookbook, doing one recipe from each section, with about 3 weeks in between each (because we alternate with the Columbia Restaurant Cookbook and the Dutch Oven Cookbook). Here are the recipes we tried on this 2023 trip through the book.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies - We're starting our next go round through this cookbook in the lovely month of February. Isn't it nice that the cookies look so festive for Valentine's Day? The jelly in the title is a bit of a misnomer, though, because it really called for preserves. Maybe we should try it again with some actual jelly! Stay tuned to see if we make any variations of this recipe.

Before the year was over, we made it back to the beginning of the book. Still no jelly, but we did try this recipe again using apricot preserves in September. And we'll be making it again a few more times!

Cheesecake Bars - Variation #6 in March used blackberry pie filling. Version #7 in October used blueberry filling. Here's the recipe.

Coconutty M&M Brownies - 3/25/23 - Someone's not a fan of coconut, but that didn't stop him from helping devour these delicious brownies.

Red's Rockin' Rainbow Cupcakes - 4/22/23 - What are the odds of having two recipes in a row calling for mini M&M's? Our grandsons didn't have any trouble helping us eat these colorful treats.

Orange Streusel Coffeecake - 6/24/23 - This version was made with apple jelly instead of orange marmalade. That change didn't make much difference at all; it still fell apart and was on the dry side.

Red Velvet Cake - 7/15/23 - Version #1 used buttermilk, butter and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. This version (#2) was made with sour milk, margarine, and milk chocolate chips. Stay tuned for version #3!

Grasshopper Mint Pie - 8/5/23 - Delicious, delicious, delicious! You can add almost anything to a base of cream cheese and sweetened whipped cream and make a luscious pie.

Double Mint Brownies - 12/16/23 - Add some peppermint extract to a boxed brownie mix and bake in a 9x13" pan. Immediately top with 24 peppermint patties. When cool, drizzle with a simple glaze (1/2 cup powdered sugar and 2-3 teaspoons milk, plus a drop of food coloring if desired). The recipe's suggestion was to use pink and green; if we ever do this again, we'll pick different colors, and probably just one.