Cloud swift, I'm short too, under 5 feet by a bit and I don't like the idea of pouring the sugar water either and it is sticky. Not sure about changing the chocolates or the sugar, but hubby was just looking over my shoulder, read what you said and his comment was "don't you dare change a thing in this recipe." Wonder though, if he would notice any changes as long as it was rich enough and tasted chocolate enough. I'll let someone else here on the board attempt the changes. I had enough trouble figuring out the recipe. As for the 9x13 inch roasting pan and the 9 inch cake pan didn't like each other very much. Roasting pan had the last laugh, as the cake pan wouldn't fit in it. So took out my oval deeper roasting pan that is very sturdy but light weight and that worked fine. Only thing is that it is 4 inches deep. So if baking time is affected by how deep the roasting pan is, that explains that the cake was still not done in 25 minutes, just like the first time I made the cake. It took about 45-50 minutes, but that was fine and it was easy to take in and out of the oven. I posted the recipe on the what's for dessert thread and on the recipe exchange forum as well. Loves, here are some pics. 8 oz chopped unsweetened chocolate 4oz chopped semisweet chocloate 1 cup margarine and 5 eggs 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper ready to use oval roasting pan ready for the cake to go in sugar water waiting to boil "cake batter" ready to pour into pan cake pan in roasting pan ready for the oven cake done and cooling on rack cake done and on plate piece of cake before hubby attacked it. Here is a link that might be useful: what's for desert thread, recipe for

For stir-frying, burner shape is as important or even more important than burner power. I test drove the Miele and Dacor cooktops as well as the BlueStar rangetop we chose. (Not an apples to apples test but at first I was hesitant to give up the space to a rangetop - then when I found out how much better the BlueStar performed for stir frying I changed my mind.) The 15K BTU burners on our Bluestar that are about the same power as the Miele and Dacor burners stir fry much better because they are much more efficient at delivering heat to the bottom of the wok and they do it very evenly. The 22K BTU burner on our BlueStar is even better. When I tested the Dacor and Miele with a chicken stir fry, I put in half the chicken at a time to sear to not overload it and it still wasn't a perfect sear. When I tested the BlueStar, it was a hot day and my DH had packed the ice chest so carefully that the chicken was mostly frozen when I took it out to start cooking. But if I was going to sacrifice my drawer to the rangetop it better be good so I put in all the chicken at once and the BlueStar immediately had it sizzling and seared perfectly. The food really tasted different cooked on the BlueStar. I highly recommend calling around the appliance stores to see if you can find one with the types of burner you are considering hooked up so you can try a stir fry recipe on the burner. I took the same wok and recipe ingredients to each cooktop/rangetop I was considering and learned a lot by doing that. If Bluestar offered a single burner version of their rangetop, that is what I would recommend to you. If you don't have a chance to do that, what you want to look for is a burner that has a shape to deliver heat efficiently and evenly to the bottom of a wok. An example of a bad type of shape is the sealed burner like on the Dacor and Miele cooktops. These have a flat circular top and flame comes out of the side of the circle. The higher you turn the burner up, the more the flame shoots out to the side; no flame goes up in the center of the burner. An example of a type that works really well for a wok is the BlueStar burner shape where the flame comes straight up out of the burner. The burner shape has a circle of flame at the center of the burner and 8 star rays of flame coming out from that circle. The center grate comes off the burner so that the wok sits right down into the flame and heat is delivered to the whole bottom of the wok. This is very similar to the wok arrangements I saw in China. A friend has the DCS wok burner and that does a very good job. We have the Miele oven. I'm very happy with its cooking performance but I find its controller kind of annoying at times. Its heating is very stable and accurate. It cooks bread well. Things I don't like: Maximum timer setting is 59 minutes and 59 seconds. I'd gladly give up the seconds to have a timer that times longer than an hour. If you put in the time and then forget to hit the button that starts the timer, it waits a bit and then cancels the timer. Too many modes - for example they have a proofing mode that only allows two temps (both higher than I would usually want to proof at) and a defrost mode with a wide range of temps (which is what I use for proofing because I can set it to 80 or 90 degrees). One ends up having to learn little tricks like which baking mode lets you set the temp up to 550 degrees (most of the modes stop at 500). If the BlueStar ovens had been available when we were choosing, I'd have been very tempted to choose them. I'm short and the side opening door would be easier for me. The one downside is that they aren't self-cleaning and I'm rather addicted to not having to clean my oven. How is your breaker box occupancy? Ours is full. If you want to add that other oven at a later date, will you have a 220 V breaker spot open? That might be one reason to choose between gas and electric ovens.

The best coffee cake ever. I can get my husband to do anything if I make him this cake :-). The best thing is it freezes extremely well. In fact, DH says it's even better after being frozen. Vanilla Steusel Coffee Cake 3 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups softened butter 1 1/2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 1/2 cups sour cream 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 3/4 cups chopped nuts (I prefer walnuts in this) 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 2 tablespoons vanilla mixed with 2 tablespoons water Preheat oven to 325. Butter 10 inch bundt cake pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside. Combine butter and sugar in large bowl and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in sour cream and vanilla. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and beat well. Combine brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Turn 1/3 of batter into the bundt cake pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the nut mixture. Repeat Add remaining batter and spoon diluted vanilla over top. Bake 60-70 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan. Sometimes some of the cake sticks to the pan. Use flexible spatula and put back on cake. It's not noticable, and once you taste it you won't care.

I have the fibrament stone and love it. Bought it after my old thin ceramic stone cracked in half. It's very thick and heavy - makes me wish that my oven had those easy rolling racks. Mine is a 15.5" diameter stone. The instructions state that it should not get wet, so I've been just scraping off any accidental drippings and let the rest burn off. It's not pretty looking but my pizzas are never soggy :). I had sometimes had problems with soggy crusts when I used a thin cheap stone from BB&B. From 2009_07_09