American Girl Summer Treats Cookbook | Book Review

The Children’s Book Review

American Girl Summer Treats Cookbook

Created by Weldon Owen

Photography by Nicole Hill Gerulat

Age Range:  8+

Hardcover Book: 128 pages

ISBN: 978-1-68188-516-2

Publisher: Weldon Owen (May 26, 2020)

What to expect: Cookbook, summer treats, famous friends.

Summer is here! It’s time to get outside and enjoy some delicious treats! Who’s hungry?

AMERICAN GIRL SUMMER TREATS brings both classic and exciting new recipes to life with beautiful photography and great tips. You’ll be getting your shopping lists written as soon as you flip through the pages. 

Begin the book with a relatively comprehensive description of the different cooking tools that you’ll need—a great addition to a cookbook for children, as many young cooks (and parents!), might not know the use of some items, like parchment paper. Young chefs will need to gather the tools used in the recipes and know what they will be used for. There’s also advice on when to have parents help with a handy “hand” image on each recipe that requires hot cooking appliances or sharp kitchen tools. 

Recipes include some centerpiece-worthy cakes, like the particularly creative watermelon cake colored and flavored with freeze-dried strawberries crushed with a rolling pin. What fun! There’s also a delicious-sounding patriotic Red, White and Blueberry cake, a colorful patriotic Bundt cake and refreshing pies and tarts. Any of these would be a crowd-pleasing addition to your summer barbecue dessert table.

There is a wonderful variety of bars and cookies that would be perfect for taking on a picnic with friends or a community pot-luck. In our home, we created beautiful meringue cookies that looked just as stunning as in the photographs in the book. They were easy and fun to make, and have the extra “wow” factor of adding dye to the piping bag with a paintbrush—a clever idea for a fun and kid-friendly treat.

From cakes to tarts to ice cream sandwiches, this book has every summer treat you can imagine. Paired with easy instructions and delightfully bright photography and fun tips in pop-outs, this is an excellent gift for any emerging baker.

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American Girl Summer Treats Cookbook was reviewed by Denise Mealy. Discover more books like American Girl Summer Treats Cookbook by following along with our reviews and articles tagged with American Girl Books, Cookbooks, and Summer.