15 Recipes for Our Favorite Bake Sale Treats

Oh, there’s “no such thing as winning a bake sale,” you say? Well, however you put it, these handheld, easy portioned recipes will bring in all the hungry customers and make the other parents on the PTA jealous. Or, if you prefer to look at this way, you’ll likely raise huge amounts for the deserving cause of your choice with these simple and shareable but incredibly delicious baked goods.

Let’s get right into it.

These deeply chocolaty cupcakes offer the familiarity of prepackaged gas station treats, without the inevitable staleness that often accompanies them. Moist and bursting with cocoa flavor, our Chocolate Cream Cupcakes are a surefire crowd pleaser.

What’s a bake sale without blueberry muffins? These are no traditional blueberry muffins; by adding a tablespoon of lemon zest for plenty of vibrant citrus flavor, Mackinac muffins have a certain whizz-pop others may lack. Adding sour cream made the muffins’ crumb more tender and enhanced the lemon tang, and a final sprinkle of lemon sugar before baking gives them that special, crunchy muffin-top satisfaction.

What could possibly make rice cereal treats even better than they already are? Bacon and caramel, of course. Our recipe adds some crispy bacon, a drizzle of caramel, and a bit of extra salt to the classic chewy bars for a savory yet sweet treat.

This three-layer Canadian treat, with its coconutty cookie base, custardy center, and chocolate ganache top, packs the complexity of a fancy dessert into bake sale–approved fare, with an array of textures that are sure to please.

Let’s be honest: Box-mix brownies are pretty darn tasty. These easy homemade brownies pack all the familiar goodness of the premade mix without all the processing and questionable ingredients (and without dirtying too many dishes). For one-bowl brownies with the proper level of chewiness, our Easy Chocolate Chunk Brownies are a go-to.

The salted caramel–filled brownies at Lauretta Jean’s Pie Bakery in Portland, Oregon (read about our visit here), look almost like muffins—squat, chewy little cylinders full of chocolate flavor, with a surprise in the middle: creamy salted caramel. Inspired by these brownies, we started our version by making a stir-together brownie batter and dividing it among muffin cups. The rest, I can assure you, will make bake sale history.

For fudgy, drop-dead delicious cookies that pack all the lovable flavors of a peanut butter cup, this recipe starts by creating a double-chocolate cookie dough. It’s so easy to work with that stuffing it with a Reese's-like filling is a total breeze, and it makes these cookies doubly delicious.

In this version of the nostalgic M&M cookie recipe, your cookies will turn out big and colorful, soft and chewy, sweet and buttery, and just salty enough to make every single one of your customers want to eat another one. And another one. And another one.

What exactly are Scotcheroos? They’re chewy, no-bake bars made with simple pantry items: cereal, chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter. The recipe first appeared on the side of the Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal box in the 1960s (though we employ a different cereal in this recipe), and it has remained popular ever since, making it the perfect option for your bake sale.

Taking inspiration from the classic candy shop confection, this recipe reimagines those clusters of pecans, caramel, and chocolate as a layered bar cookie. Simply use an easy chocolate shortbread crust as the base, and everyone will appreciate how its crunchy texture supports and contrasts the rich caramel.

Like a cross between sugar cookies and lemon bars, these bar cookies are chewy, sweet, and vibrant—a classic that needs no reinvention to sell out at the bake sale. And who couldn’t look past the fun, colorful addition of eye-catching sprinkles on these little bars of sunshine?

Mini chocolate chips add an exciting touch to this sweet snack cake that will offer all the fall vibes people will be clamoring for with pumpkin spice flavors. Warm spices make this treat comfy and delicious, and the chocolate chips bring the decadence.

This recipe is inspired by the stuffed cookies that Editor in Chief Toni Tipton-Martin received as a gift from baker and chef Adrian Lipscombe. We adapted Adrian's bakery-shop recipe for the home cook. Whether you love red velvet or are yet to come around to it, you can’t deny these oozy cookies are simply perfect.

The trendy spice flavor you’ll see all fall long is usually missing one important thing: actual pumpkin flavor. But not in this recipe. Canned pumpkin puree adds a bit of subtle flavor to these muffins, but more importantly, it also makes them ultramoist.

A freshly baked version of Little Debbie's most iconic snack in your home kitchen? Yep, it’s possible: no plastic packaging necessary. This recipe tweaks both the ingredient list of the classic cookie and the method to re-create the thin, tender, molasses-tinged flavors of the original . . . but even better.