Some of the scratch cakes that I have tried lately with the basic eggs, flour, sugar, milk, etc. end up tasting alot like cornbread - I was just wondering if a different brand of flour would make it taste different? Or do they all "taste" the same?

I don't often recommend a brand of anything, but I will share my personal experience. My mom uses generic everything, but last year when we all got together for the holidays she had been using my White Lily AP flour and said the pancakes, cookies, etc turned out better. Since then I've read other people recommend White Lily too (in the newspaper and online). I recently bought a 5lb bag at Walmart for $1.26, which is not the normal price there. It may be a seasonal price.

that cornbread taste isn't from the brand of flour. it comes from overbeating the cake once you add the flour.

They may taste different to a sensitive palate- depending on whether they are bleached, unbleached, and the type of bleaching process they use. The main difference in brands is protein content, grind, and consistency between batches.

Amber

I was wondering if I had been doing the mixing part wrong. I was using the Ultimate Yellow Butter Cake recipe from the baking911 site. I followed the mixing directions exactly as she had them printed even though my mixer is slightly less powerful. I am very careful about mixing only until the mixture is blended though so I'm just curious why I would have that problem with one recipe and then another has no problem at all?!!?? I have been using the regular bleached Gold Medal flour. Do you think it would be beneficial to try unbleached? I do not have problems with the chocolate cakes I do with ap flour and also not with the yellow cakes with cake flour.

I also love http://kingarthurflour.com/ Thier flour is one of the best in the states. If I cant get thiers I will use Silk Flour. So there are other brands besides store brands out there. HTH

I'm with you, debiashwood! I LOVE King Arthur flour and I use it in every recipe that doesn't call for cake flour. I have a booth at a local farmer's market for 20 weeks out of the year and I use about 40 pounds of flour a week...yep, that's a LOT of flour! I not only use their unbleached AP, but their whole wheat as well. I can get a 10lb bag of the AP at Wal-Mart for about $4...much cheaper than buying directly from King Arthur. If it's available in your area, give it a try. You really will notice a difference.

I agree...I don't think they taste differently but I'm sure they perform differently. I like White Lily for things like biscuits, pancakes, cornbread etc. but use King Arthur or Silk brands for cakes, cupcakes, cookies, desserts.

JennT,

That's it exactly! We were talking about the biscuits at Popeyes and my friend said they couldn't be duplicated because you couldn't get the same flour "up north".

Well, 15 years later, you can!