MonaPizza

Couldn't decide between the corn muffins so I ended up making both of course! I made the herb variation on the plain corn muffins adding some fresh thyme...very good but not a huge thyme flavor...as she says, if you want more, to rub in in with the sugar. The corn and pepper muffins were great too...forgot the chili powder but they were still very nice...kind of a southwestern flavor and great spread with butter - yum!

Thank you both for your input! I'll let you know what I end up making

I'm going to a BBQ tomorrow where ribs are being served and I was asked to bring cornbread...has anyone tried either of the corn muffin recipes? Any opinions on which is better if you've tried both? Thanks!

I order my vanilla beans from thevanillashop.com and they have this link to some interesting vanilla recipes you might want to check out: http://www.thevanillashop.com/recip_a.html I'm glad you started this thread. I just ordered a big batch from them and have always been curious about how a homemade extract would compare to store-bought. Can't wait to see your results!

Chocolate Chunkers - oh yeah....it's like a brownie diguised as a cookie. I substituted bittersweet chocolate for the white chocolate because I didn't have any around...omitted the raisins and used toasted walnuts. These are delicious!!

Ohhhh....good call. That will teach me to read all the instructions before I start! Thanks for the heads up!

Question to throw out to anyone that is familiar with the Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes...the instructions specify to whisk the eggs into the vanilla-infused sugar until thoroughly incorporated. I whisked until they were well-combined but not too much more than that. When I baked them, they didn't seem to rise to any dome...they baked up flat. Do you think that I needed to whisk the eggs more when making the batter in order to make the cakes rise more when baked?

Hi Dorie, I've been following this thread for awhile and it's been such an inspiration to try so many recipes from your book. Everything I've made so far has been such a treat! The sables, world peace cookies and espresso chocolate chip shortbread were some of the best cookies I've ever made. The choco-nana bread was great and this weekend I went a little crazy and made your brioche, sticky buns and extraordinary lemon cream tart. All were superb. Thanks so much for putting together such a great collection! I look forward to trying the rum-soaked vanilla cakes as soon as my new vanilla bean shipment arrives

After reading the last few pages of this thread yesterday I was determined to make the Ultimate Butter Cake right away. I thought I had milk, but all I had was cream and buttermilk. So after a quick search, I discovered that when substituting buttermilk for cow's milk in baked goods, using one cup as the base measurement for milk, it's a one to one subsitute for the milk, but you need to add 1/2 tsp baking soda and substract 2 tsp baking powder from the required amount in the recipe. Anway, I made the cake, using Ling's topping and substituting the buttermilk, as instructed above. Although I understand from the conversation that the substitution may dramatically alter the original, I gotta tell you this is one fabulous cake. Or, rather, two! Wow. ← Devlin, Thanks for letting me know! I've been baking like crazy lately and in the past week I made the crumbcake variation and the original butter cake with a chocolate frosting - both were excellent! You should visit Sarah's website too - there's TONS of info on there and an ASK SARAH forum where you can get answers to any of your cake questions...it's a great place to pick up a lot of great tips!

I've been baking some cakes lately and I have a question regarding substitutions. How does buttermilk affect a cake compared to regular milk? If I were going to substitute buttermilk would I have to make any other modifications? I ask because I have a recipe for a lemon cake that I really like that calls for buttermilk and I was wondering how to best modify it into a butter/vanilla cake and/or chocolate cake if possible. Thanks for your help and I can't wait to try your butter cake recipe soon as well!