Cornstarch is added to confectioners' sugar to prevent it from lumping, I've been told. Superfine sugar can be whirled in the blender until it's even finer, if kosher-for-Passover confectioners' sugar isn't available. If you have access to certified Passover food, such markets usually sell granulated sugar infused with vanillin. It's the only time of the year I use artificial vanilla, but vanillin sugar passes muster in any flavorful Passover dessert, especially one with chocolate! The Nielsen-Massey pure vanilla paste available from KA and elsewhere appears to contain no alcohol--forbidden during Passover, except for kosher-for-Passover wines--but alas! I just checked the label, and this paste contains a bit of vanilla extract, which means there's alcohol there after all. Corn (and cornstarch) is one of the five grains forbidden in their everyday form during Passover. The others are wheat (other than that which is processed under strict, complex standards to make matzo, matzo meal, matzo cake meal, etc.), barley, oats, and spelt. So that's why Passover baking recipes may call for potato starch and/or ground nuts. When my sons were little, I bought two pounds of whole spelt from The Baker's Catalogue to give to the heads of the Jewish nursery school and day school that they attended, and before the holiday they showed this ancient grain around to their students. Hardly any of the grown-ups had ever seen it, either--thanks, KA! Passover is a time when those of us who are Jewish and who bake frequently must change our ways completely for eight days. Thanks for helping us with new and delightful dishes for the holiday. Marcy Goldman's book, "A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking," has a chapter on Passover, and it's a batter-splattered volume to which I turn all year 'round. Now that Deanna mentions it, though, I'll have to make that Queen Mother's Cake again!

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