[SAJ]

Good q's, miss marmelstein! Biggest mistake is often in the baking powder. Would you believe that lots of recipes don't even **call** for baking powder? Truth -- even Food Network doesn't use b.p. in its recipe.

Just btw, "fresh" seems to be relative. By keeping b.p. tightly sealed (after opening) in the fridge, I've had good results with it for up to 18 months.

[miss marmelstein]

Wow! 18 months! That's fantastic. I have a real tendency to chuck everything out after a month or two - just a quirk I have.

Some professionals complain that baking powder has a “chemical” taste - I know that was one of Edna Lewis's pet peeves (she used cream of tartar and something else). I don't get it myself and happily shovel in the bp!

[bgill]

Would you believe that lots of recipes don't even **call** for baking powder?

That's because many of today's all purpose flours contain baking powder. Using different brands of all purpose flour will give you different baking results because of the protein amounts and other additives.