All-Time Favorite Sheet Cakes & Slab Pies: Easy to Make, Easy to Serve

In this fun and innovative cookbook, Weinstein and Scarbrough (À La Mode) explain that sheet cakes have more icing per bite than layer cakes and slab pies more crust and fruit filling. The authors tout the advantages of “big” baking (among them the ease of pouring everything into one pan and how big baking facilitates sharing) and feature these advantages in more than 100 recipes for one-layer cakes and pies. While the same principles of easy to make and easy to serve apply to all recipes in this book, this is a versatile collection spanning flavors and occasions, with selections that include a picnic-worthy lemonade cake, an after-school appropriate jam thumbprint cake, and an ideal-for-Sunday-brunch chocolate and goat cheese Danish. Home bakers can find seasonally appropriate recipes such as for summer stone fruit; included are a recipe for a nectarine-blueberry pie with walnut crunch and, for fall, a pear pie with bread-crumb crunch. Regional variety is offered in the Midwestern slab pudding and the New England cranberry pie. The year-round giant jam slab has the potential to become a family favorite, and those with a restrictive diet can indulge in the gluten-free fudgy cake with vegan chocolate frosting. For readers still not sold on flat pies or cakes, the authors include “Still Want to Layer?” tip boxes for those who want to elevate their layering skills. This laid-back approach to baking is sure to entice home bakers of all levels to get out that sheet pan and invite a hungry crowd. (Oct.)