Splenda

A quick comment on Splenda. I like using Splenda in place of sugar in some desserts. I don't understand the full chemistry of it, but it has worked really well in banana bread, white chocolate cheesecake, and peanut butter cookies. I would not recommend it for ice cream or the microwave brownie recipe. The distinction appears to be in the number and strength of other flavors in the recipe. White chocolate cheesecake, for example, has sugar in the white chocolate and that flavor dominates the cake so Splenda works just fine. There are also many other ingredients in it like cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. In ice cream, the sugar is combined with cream, milk and maybe one other flavor, so the flavor of the Splenda has nowhere to hide.
In the microwave brownie I have a feeling the chemistry of the Splenda combined with the microwave cooking method just didn't get along. It was hideous.