AHi everyone!

i ve started a home business for 6 months now, located in evry, a town near paris.

My vanilla cake recipe is a chiffon cake with vanilla extract.

The other day, it was my friend b-day and i offered her a cake : vanilla with strawberry filling.

it was a 6in cake and i put 3 tbsp of vanilla essence.

She called me this morning and she said the cake didn t taste vanilla and it was light brown.

So i told her that the color was because of the vanilla essence but she was not completly satisfied.

My customers never told me it was a problem for them, maybe because it s not, maybe because they didn t dare to.

Do you think it s a problem i should deal with? How can i whiten my batter?

thanks in advance for all your reply and excuse my english

3 tbsp. of vanilla for a 6" cake is over kill and a waste of money. You need to bake your cake and taste it yourself so you know what the issues are. Perhaps you're not using a great recipe, perhaps there is too much vanilla or not. Unless you can post a photograph of this cake no one can know for sure what is wrong.

Hi daisybee - when you say chiffon cake I'm assuming there's all or mostly vegetable oil in the recipe rather than butter? I've recently come to the conclusion that the vanilla flavor we all love in cake is really a marriage of vanilla and butter. Flavorless oil seems to suck the vanilla flavor right out of every cake, cupcake, muffin I've ever used it in. They always taste very bland to me, and as I know I've used plenty of vanilla, and salt, I blame it on the oil. I've substituted some butter for oil in other recipes with moderate success, but chiffon is a bit finicky, so I don't know. Perhaps someone else has more chiffon experience and can help. 

I agree with Stitches - you just need to taste your recipe and make sure you're making/selling a product that YOU can stand behind. If you like the texture and flavor, but simply don't care for the color - there are many brands of clear vanilla extract (I've never used, as they are artificial, but many people use it and love it). However, I wouldn't increase the vanilla - that would be 1/4 C per 6" cake!

Your english is fine!

AHi,

Thanks for your replies!

To me this recipe is heaven, i love it but maybe i should substitute the oil by melted butter?

i use sunflower or "colza" oil, i don't know if that is the good word.

Actually my customers never complained about my vanilla cake, i ve never had bad feedback on my cake, they always say it s moist light and very tasty.

maybe my friend wants me to improve myself and that s why she told me the cake did not taste vanilla or maybe my cake wasn t good for real

Everytime i tell my customers im gonna change the recipe, they tell me not to do so but now,while reading your answers i understand that there is too much vanilla in my cake!

Since i don t want to use artificial vanilla extract, i think i m going to try vanilla bean or vanilla bean powder.

Thanks again for your answers and for having me practiced my english!

A good site to read is http://www.davidlebovitz.com/ - an American living in Paris ...

He may be able to help you with using French products in American baking ...