"Baking the Best of Mary Lee's Desserts" contains over 85 dessert recipes based on Mary Lee's 15 years of running her successful small baking business in Northern Virginia. Mary Lee is known for her amazing cupcakes, old-fashioned layer cakes, signature cakes, an array of cookies, bars, and tartlets, plus all of the morning treats and specialty goodies that she designed for Bards Alley Bookstore and Cafe. Included in this book are the four recipes published in the Washington Post, including her hugely successful M&M Bars (top Post recipe for all of 2012), as well as many cherished family recipes. Start warming the oven and let's get baking!

Unlike many cookbooks that simply test recipes for publication, the recipes inside of this book are the foundation of her highly successful baking business. Mary Lee has written each recipe with brand names listed, and easy step-by-step instructions for all levels of bakers. Additionally, there are sections on baking equipment and baking tips that all levels of bakers will find helpful.

Having covered all book-related costs herself, Mary Lee is donating all of the profits from each book's sale to charities doing wonderful work: Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen, The Trevor Project, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Mary Lee Montfort is the successful small business owner of Mary Lee's Desserts in Northern Virginia. All of her desserts were made to order for every customer by Mary Lee, which quickly set her apart from commercial bakeries. From single cakes to large corporate events, holidays – when Mary Lee routinely baked over 1,000 cookies – to galas and Bards Alley Bookstore & Café, her desserts were always known for their quality and amazing taste.

Mary Lee's recipes were included in the Washington Post several times, with her M&M Bars recipe becoming the most downloaded and viewed of any Post recipe for all of 2012. Mary Lee is an advocate for Marriage Equality and the LGBTQ community and as such, proudly participated in the Chefs for Equality Galas (swag bags!) in Washington DC.

Mary Lee believes in passing things forward and has covered all of the costs of designing, producing, distributing, and marketing her cookbook herself so that she can donate ALL of the profits from each book's sale to three charities doing amazing work: World Central Kitchen, The Trevor Project, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.