I have made this white cake for years.....but not FOR years if you get what I mean....what I mean was that it was an old favorite when I baked birthday cakes more often. ICE CREAM CAKE 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup butter 2 cups sifted flour 3 tsp. baking powder 1 cup sifted cornstarch 1 cup milk 1 tsp. almond or vanilla extract 5 stiffly beaten egg whites Cream sugar and butter together. Sift the flour, baking powder and cornstarch together. Alternate adding these to creamed mixture along with milk. Beat until very smooth. Add vanilla and then fold in egg whites that have been beaten until stiff. Bake in 2 greased and floured 8" round cake pans for 25 to 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Frost with Boiled White Icing. Or....since he specifically asked for "vanilla cake, I might fill with a vanilla pastry cream and then top with that frosting where you mix egg whites, sugar and syrup in a double boiler and cook beating all the while until it's thick and holds it's shape Here's what I have for a flourless chocolate cake.....came from this forum many years ago... It is kind of like a cake textured hot fudge sauce served in slices. VERY rich - so cut in thin slices. Killer Chocolate Torte 2 cups unsalted butter (4 sticks) cut into 1/2 in. pieces 1 Cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar 1 Cup plus 2 tablespoons espresso powder 16 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (NOT unsweetened or semisweet) 6 large eggs at room temperature 6 large egg yolks at room temperature powdered sugar for garnish whipped cream (optional) Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan with 2 3/4 inch sides. cut parchment or wax paper to fit sides, and, and a circular piece to fit in the bottom of the greased pan. Smooth paper against inner surfaces. Melt 2 cups butter with the sugar and espresso powder in a heavy saucepan over medium low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add chocolate and stir until mixture is smooth and chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Whisk the eggs and additional yolks in a large bowl until frothy. CAREFULLY fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and place on a heavy baking sheet. Bake in the preheated 325 degree oven until the edges puff and crack slightly but the center is not quite set. Transfer to a rack and let cool. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. to remove from pan, dip a sharp thin knife in hot water and run it around the sides of the pan to loosen the torte. Carefully release and remove the pan sides and the parchment. It will have cracks in it, but this is normal. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar (if desired) and cut into very thin slices with a sharp knife dipped into hot water, taking care to wipe the knife after each cut. Serve with whipped cream if desired. Many servings.

Jo, It's amazing how the minute you cross the state line prices jump across the board no matter what the purchase. On one of our trips to White Flower Farm we stopped at a grocery store to see if the western part of the state was any different. Nope, the Litchfield Hills are, if anything, higher. Yeah, I'm sure Guilford has to be pretty similar to Mystic; maybe, even higher since you're closer to the City. Cloud swift, I just checked the Costco website to see if they perhaps had a new store but, alas, there's no store within 50 miles of Mystic. :( It's a zoning thang...Mystic doesn't even allow fast food restaurants except the one McDs at the entrance to I-95 & that's because of the large numbers of tourists visiting the Seaport & aquarium (McDs is basically right across the street from the aquarium). Walmart tried to get a store in...holy cow, you'd have thought it was a adult toy store the way voters responded! So, even our closest Wally World is a good ten miles away...over in the inland part of Groton. Doesn't really matter 'cause DH & I don't shop there anyway...personal protest thing. New England zoning laws discourage competition from large national stores...it interfers with the Norman Rockwell'ness of the area. There was a fire in downtown Mystic about six years ago & we lost an entire building. An out-of-state developer purchased the shell with the intent of rebuilding with the first floor retail & the upper floors high-end condos. Every plan they've submitted has been shot down by either the voters or the Historical Committee. I 'almost' feel sorry for the developers...they seriously underestimated the power of the New England Town Meeting! :) The whole issue revolves around windows. The developer wants to put large windows in the back of the building that overlooks Mystic River & the Seaport. They say buyers want large windows. The Historical Commitee & the voters say, "We don't care what your buyers want. Large windows are NOT appropriate to a first quarter 19th century New England building. They must be small." (So small...you can't meet fire code!) So, the building sits boarded up. I understand there's another "plan" to be presented sometime next spring. We'll see... It's not just groceries or gas or housing costs...once you get the flour home then the electricity rates to bake the bread are the 3rd highest in the nation behind only Hawaii & our dear neighbors Rhode Island. All of New England has a high cost of living. We used to ask about it when we first moved here but were always met with a blank stare & a response of, "Yeah, and your point is???" So, we don't ask anymore. We've just adjusted. When I look at these electric rates it's almost funny how much cheaper they are outside New England. All that said, I love living in New England & I wouldn't leave easily. So, maybe after living here for twenty years I finally understand all of those blank stares about the cost of living followed by the, "And your point is???" /tricia

Jim, the money supply can go up but if velocity is down, it doesn't drive inflation. I've linked below to an article on this. And how much is the money supply going up, really? The Fed is trying to drive up money supply, but the private sector is pulling it down. You can find charts of money supply, here is one: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/money-supply-charts Money supply has declined quite significantly in the past couple years. dcarch, no question the rapid growth of China and India is adding to demand. However, that growth is coming from a very low level. The consumption of goods and services by the average person in China or India is far, far less than the consumption of the average person in the US, Europe and Japan. Use GDP per capita as a rough proxy for consumption. India is about $3,500, China about $7,000 vs US about $46,000, Western Europe and Japan about $35,000. China's population is 1.3bn, India's 1.2bn, US 311mm, Western Europe 500mm (use the EU), Japan 127mm. So we can get the GDP of each region. Suppose China and India's GDP grows 60% in the next 5 years, which is 10% per year (about the current rate) while the US, Western Europe and Japan's GDP only grows 10% over the period or 2% per year (unfortunately, also about the current rate if not better). The result would be the combined GDP grows 24% over the period or 4% per year. (approximate, I don't have a spreadsheet here, just an iPhone and a pencil). (We could use other proxies for consumption, like energy consumption per capita. Which is why I did the above as a per capita calculation, instead of simply starting with country GDP.) Can the world supply 4% more ''stuff'' per year without driving inflation to very high levels? Overall, sure. There is plenty of production capacity in electronics and plastic molding and LCD screens to supply (far more than) 4% growth in iPhones and similar. There is plenty of assembly and component manufacturing capacity to supply (more than) 4% growth in automobiles. Similar for concrete to make housing, fiberboard to make furniture, etc. 4% will not stress global capacity, especially after a deep recession as we've just had. We'll see periods of volatility in some prices, as supply and demand adjust. Pork, rice, cotton, etc. This volatility will be upwards and downwards, but the price rises will get more media attention. Remember a couple of years ago, when rice was skyrocketing in price, countries were hoarding, everyone was talking about rice shortages? Rice soared to $22. Then it fell to $12, that didn't get much news. Rose to $16. Fell to $10. Rose to $14. Yet during the period 2008 to present, as rice price were cut in half, China and India have continued to grow and consume more of everything - and they eat a lot of rice. The commodities that are soaring today will collapse the same way. Commodities are more volatile today, their prices moving more than fundamental demand-supply would suggest, because more investors are playing those markets, and financial money flows are huge compared to the relatively small commodities markets. In the end, fundamentals still control. Here is a link that might be useful: Article

I have some and have used it. It might be preferred where adding the least liquid possible is best, but it has added sugar and xanthan gum added (Neilsen-Massey -- I think another brand may have had corn syrup). I make my own vanilla extract and like knowing nothing else is added. I am a Penzey's devotee, but their vanilla has added sugar. That said, given the price of vanilla, no baker is going to turn up their nose at a gift of good quality vanilla this year. You can use it all.