FROM THE FOUNDER OF MRS. FIELDS' COOKIES, THE RENOWNED CHAIN OF COOKIE STORES, A SPECTACULAR COLLECTION OF DESSERT RECIPES Debbi Fields, who turned a simple chocolate chip cookie into a national icon, understands America's love of desserts. In Debbi Fields' Great American Desserts, she offers 100 recipes bound to satisfy all dessert fans. Beautifully illustrated and lively, Debbi Fields' Great American Desserts presents Debbi's own down-to-earth style in easy, foolproof recipes for American favorites with delectable variations on many of them. Try Debbi's classic Devil's Food Cake, then make her irresistible variation: four chocolate layers sandwiched with Dark Chocolate Fudge Ganache and Whipped Chocolate Espresso Filling, covered in White Chocolate Frosting. And if you think Debbi's Truffle Cake is to die for, just wait until you taste her Triple Truffle Cake. Prefer pie to cake? Then enjoy Paradise Key Lime Pie, or the heavenly Peanut Butter-Chocolate Mud Pie. Craving cheesecake? After you've baked Debbi's New York Style Cheesecake, move on to her Sweet Potato-Pecan Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust. In the mood for something simpler? Then Debbi's Banana Pudding or Strawberry-Peach Shortcake will fill the bill. And for cookie lovers, there are Caramel Macadamia Butter Cookies and Chocolate Swirled Shortbread. With easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, and lavishly illustrated with seventy full-color photographs, Debbi Fields' Great American Desserts will inspire cooks and bakers everywhere to create and indulge in these supremely satisfying delights. Debbi Fields opened her first Mrs. Fields cookie store at the age of twenty and saw her enterprise grow into a company of 700 domestic and international stores. She has written four books, including One Smart Cookie, Mrs. Fields' Cookie Book -- the first cookbook to make the New York Times bestseller list -- and Mrs. Fields' I Love Chocolate Cookbook. Debbi is a motivational speaker and mother of five daughters and resides in Memphis, Tennessee, with her husband and family. Chapter 1 Chocolate Cakes and Layer Cakes You cannot talk about great American desserts without talking about cakes because American cooks have created a remarkable number of great cakes since this country was founded. The variety is astonishing! There are layer cakes and pound cakes; butter cakes, sponge cakes, and angel food cakes. Entire books have been devoted to great cakes. With a chapter, not a book, to work with, I've limited myself to five equally delicious but very different types. It begins with the classic devil's food, dark and rich and tempting. My variation is filled with chocolate cream and covered with an irresistible white chocolate frosting. Tempting doesn't really begin to describe it! Southern bakers made coconut cake a country-wide favorite. It could be one of the most beautiful cakes ever baked, and so are my two variations on the theme. Carrot cake may be the easiest way I know to get your kids to eat their vegetables! Both my versions, classic and chocolate, share one very important element: a luscious cream cheese frosting. Before store-bought cakes were common, birthday cakes were homemade, and what made the best birthday cake hands down was a wonderfully light, moist yellow butter cake that took to any icing. My daughters have always chosen their own birthday cakes. Jennifer and Jenessa are both yellow-cake-with-fudge-frosting fans. My version is covered with an irresistible fudge frosting. It's paired with a peaches-and-cream variation that just might be the all-time perfect summer garden party or summer dessert cake. Blended with the right amount of brown sugar, this makes one of my favorites. I began this chapter with devil's food cake, and I'm ending it with its polar opposite -- angel food cake. I've also included a chocolate variation that's as light and airy as the original. Serve one of these beauties to family and friends, and make any meal a special occasion. Debbi's Devil's Food Cake Makes 12 servings Who doesn't love chocolate cake? And when it's the great American classic devil's food cake, I find it even harder to resist. I know it is in our house, especially for Randy. When we were first married, I created my own recipe for him and he was hooked! Now I make it not only every year for his birthday, but many times just to say "you're special." This devil's food cake is rich and chocolatey and dark and moist. It's made with both cocoa and chocolate, and it has the most wonderful thick chocolate frosting, which I hope you'll use on other cakes as well. I always increase the frosting amounts on my cakes in self-defense! Randy eats his frosting first, then tries everyone else's. The girls keep "testing" while it's being made to be sure it still tastes the same -- so it really disappears! This cake is so easy to make, I'll bet you have all the ingredients already on hand in your cupboard. So, don't wait! Equi