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I do use vinegar in my pie crusts and it does make it more flaky/tender. For one pie crust recipe (that makes enough crust for a single pie with both a top and a bottom crust) which calls for 2 cups of all purpose flour, 2/3 cup Crisco, 1 tsp salt, enough liquid to form a dough(about 1/2 cup), I do use about 2 Tablespoons of vinegar. I guess I could try lemon juice instead. But it does work and the acidity of vinegar does not make the dough harder to handle. On the subject of butter versus crisco in pie crusts: the difference I have found between using butter or crisco or a combination of them is that the more butter I use in my pie crust, the more it shrinks. Hope this helps! By the way Eskay, your pies look awesome!

One of my favorite American cake websites is http://www.sweetcourse.com/ I think her work is the ultimate.

thanks for visiting the website and thanks for harmlessly putting me in my place!!!

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The chocolate cake recipe I use calls for 1 cup of boiling water and I've often substituted the water with strong hot coffee. You could probably do the same with black tea. I've also made a pound cake recipe that calls for whole milk and substituted a combination of whole milk and Tazo chai tea latte concentrate. ← I second that suggestion. Although I haven't made a Chai Tea cake, I've made tons of great tasting tea infused ganaches. All you do is take whatever liquid the recipe calls for and steep tea in it before you mix it in with the other ingredients. Make sure to get the liquid back to the temp the recipe calls for before adding it in. You will need to experiment with how much tea to use in the recipe based on how strong you want the tea flavor to come out in the dish and how strong the other flavors are. Hope this helps. Lets see the finished product when its done!! ← thank you all for your responses thus far. The main problem I have had thus far with experimenting is the end result ends up tasting like a spice cake and not chai tea. This is with regards to the spices. If someone has perfected the ratio and selections of spices to get a baked product, in this case a cake, to taste like chai tea, that would get me further along my experimenting! I will be glad to share whatever I can after I get a good result - pictures and/or recipes.

Greetings, Looking for something like a white/yellow cake recipe made with a strong black tea for liquids and spices which emulate chai tea. I describe this criteria because it seems like this is the re-occurring pattern in chai tea cake recipes. I have googled for this recipe but was wondering if anyone has actually had good/great results from any particular one. Or if someone has a chocolate cake recipe modified for Chocolate Chai Tea Cake, that would work also. thanks in advance for any positive/helpful responses.

I know the original post was back in 2003 but I have some suggestions in addition to all the others. Fishers' Station restaurant - homestyle gourmet food Victor, NY - near Eastview Mall 1-585-742-3280 Victor is a suburb of a suburb of Rochester - from Rochester take 490 south towards Eastview mall. The restaurant is located in a ranch house and owned/run by a family. All their food is made there, from scratch (my definition of homemade). Their pancakes are like crepes. Very thin and one pancake stack has like 9 or 10. They write their breakfast and lunch menu on a blackboard every day. You can order extra sides ( but that is not advertised anywhere). There is a separate menu for breakfast in addition to what is on the blackboard. Their sliced tomatos in the dead of winter are always red ripe and tasty. Their CAESAR SALAD has homemade dressing. Their soup is homemade. Their rolls on their sandwiches is homemade. Their friday fish is pan fried. Their pies are homemade. Background: The husband is an awesome chef. The wife waits tables and runs the cash register. Some of their 5 children bus tables. The family used to live in Chicago where the husband was a chef but they decided to raise their children in a more rural area. (These facts are irrelevant to the food quality...) Hours: They have interesting business hours. They are closed Mon and Tues. They are open for lunch wed and thurs - 11 am - 2 pm? They are open for breakfast and lunch Fri and sat - 7am -2 pm? They are open for breakfast on Sun 7am - noon? Please call to verify their hours because they have some minor changes depending on if it is summer or winter and they close for the month of August. Another good breakfast place in Victor - Chit Chat Cafe on rt 96 near Victor village - 1-585-742-1780 - very good homemade food, homemade bread for all entrees. They close at like 1 pm. Fiorvantis - italian restaurant opened up about 2006 Irondequoit, NY (suburb of Rochester) Located in Sea Breeze area You can see the lake from inside the restaurant 1-585-544-0910 Call before you go to verify hours and availability. They only do dinners and then on Wed - Sat. Good bread and chicken soup for starters - anything else is pretty good. For what it's worth, I liked the original Mamasan's, Dinosaur Barbeque, Rincon in Sodus (1-315-483-4199) to name a few. I used to live in Washington, DC, area for 20 years and I do miss the abundance of wonderful restaurants.