Baking with Julia is an excellent book. It is a compilation of recipes from different bakers with a foreword from Julia Child. I can't remember if there are any of her recipes in there. The pizza dough recipe is great!
Love foodgawker.com, king arthur and when I'm really in the need for something different, I go to allrecipes.com and use their ingredient search. I grow a TON of blackberries and I'm always looking for something new to bake with them. Blackberry muffins get boring after awhile
I now have a list of the sites and titles suggested ~ thank you so much!
Laura, I know Better Homes and Gardens put this book out. We once got it as a gift but never used it because the kids just bake with me and want to use my stuff. You can check out the reviews though, and Amazon will suggest other titles too.
Who knew there were so many closet bakers on the cathenation.com?
I've been dabbling (slowly!) in bread baking. I really Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. We've enjoyed every loaf we've tried so far!
Nancy Baggett just came out with a similar book called Kneadlessly Simple, which I would like to check out soon.
Other fun baking books: Carole Walter's Great Cookies as well as Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins, and More; Lisa Yokelson's Baking By Flavor; Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours; and any of the King Arthur Flour cookbooks (I have the All-Purpose Baking Companion, the Cookie Companion, and Whole Grain Baking -- all are excellent!).
And for a healthier cookie book, try One Smart Cookie.
"is there a cook book for kids? my niece,7 yrs old,loves to bake french toast and pancakes"
This one has French toast, and lots of other kid-friendly recipes. For each recipe, there is a kid-version with lots of pictures, and a parent version next to it with more details written if needed. I found it at our local library, but here's a link at Amazon: