The 12 boys and girls who tested all these recipes...

Donna - "We tested about 136 recipes and we liked almost every one of them."

Peter - "We learned what things mean, like baste and fold and sift."

Lucy - "It's important to measure exactly. When we didn't we had trouble."

Elizabeth - "All those recipes sound like a lot of work. But we loved it."

Chris - "If we didn't like it, Betty Crocker didn't put it in this book."

Randee - "Being a home tester was the most exciting thing I ever did."

Ricky - "We always said what we thought, even if it wasn't complimentary."

Becky - "After all the recipes were tested we had a wonderful party."

Linda - "Our mother marked what we made excellent, good, fair, or poor."

Bette Anne - "We had to say if things were easy or hard and did they taste good."

Eric - "We had to say if we liked things enough to make them again."

Eileen - "It's really easy to cook, if you do what it says in the recipe."

Extra special, Good things to make for parties-for holidays-for your friends -and just for fun.

Of all the extra-specials, cakes are tops. And how proud you'll be when you make a birthday cake for Dad, a Heart Cake for Mother on Mother's Day, an Igloo Cake for your little sister, or any cake on these pages.

There are lots of other fun things you can make like fancy drinks and Black Cat Cookies and Eggs in a Frame for a camp-fire lunch.

You'll want to try them all before you are through and a good place to start is with a special cake. You can make any of these cakes easily if you follow directions carefully and take to heart all the cakemaking tips over there on the next page.