Well, finally and at long last...I remember the aborted experiments with some European thermal processing technologies to eliminate the asterisk in the Never Bleached, Never Bromated slogan.... I have used other cake flours; because I can't always reliably plan how much bleached cake flour I'm going to use in a given period, I can't mail-order Guinevere The Mighty Bleached Blonde, and have to instead rely on that stuff in the pink box whose name I won't be mentioning. It's a painful link to Big Ginormous Agribusiness, because I simply don't buy many of their other products. So is this simply a finer-milled, lower-total-protein version of the KAF flours we know and love, or is something else going on to mimic the performance effect of chlorinated flours? Some of us are the sort of neurotic bakers who have really fine-tuned our recipes for particular ingredients - for example, since I exclusively bake with KAF AP flours and measure by mass, I've made adjustments in hydration level and mixing times to cope with the higher protein levels and stronger protein structures. Switching cake flours is a GIANT financial commitment for me; in the 20 years I've been baking competitively, I'd wager that my butter spending outpaces my flour spending seven or eight to one, and there's gonna be a risk of some spectacular failures the first time out. For better or worse, That Hussy In The Red Sweater and the Big Red Spoon makes a consistent product with defined performance characteristics (if a somewhat unpleasant flavor in lean doughs and batters), and they're in it for the long haul. So the good news is, I'll be baking special cakes with my complimentary box of KAF (subtle, no? ;0) ). . . the part that remains to be seen is whether I'll be feeding loved ones because my baked goods are so tender and light with an honest wheat flavor and a creamier appearance, or if I'll be feeding the ducks because it doesn't hold fats the same way that highly oxidized flours do. . . . Please send my love to the Bleach Blonde; Eric

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