avr_fred:
Your baud rate is wrong, it needs to be 57600.Please retry the serial upload from within the IDE. Use the Pro Mini 5V/16MHz board type and please post the entire avrdude exchange, beginning with the command line that invokes avrdude and all resulting lines until avrdude quits.
okay - Serial upload using IDE via the, now functioning, CH340G USB-to-TTL-adapter;
full verbose output (there wasn't much !)
Binary sketch size: 1,084 bytes (of a 30,720 byte maximum)
C:\arduino-1.0.5-windows\arduino-1.0.5\hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude -CC:\arduino-1.0.5-windows\arduino-1.0.5\hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -v -v -v -patmega328p -carduino -P\\.\COM15 -b57600 -D -Uflash:w:C:\DOCUME~1\***\LOCALS~1\Temp\build7740327464340311821.tmp\Blink.cpp.hex:i
avrdude: Version 5.11, compiled on Sep 2 2011 at 19:38:36
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch
System wide configuration file is "C:\arduino-1.0.5-windows\arduino-1.0.5\hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"
Using Port : \\.\COM15
Using Programmer : arduino
Overriding Baud Rate : 57600
avrdude: Send: 0 [30] [20]
avrdude: Send: 0 [30] [20]
avrdude: Send: 0 [30] [20]
avrdude: Recv:
avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude done. Thank you.
slowly, more of these lines are starting to make sense to me now ! 
looks like the baud rate is correct, also tried the Duemilanove setting for "good" measure - exact same output as above.
does this confirm (yet ?) that there is no bootloader (or sketch) on board ?
incase you want to see the boards.txt anyway, here are the key entries;
lilypad32816.name=LilyPad Arduino w/ ATmega328 @16 MHz
lilypad32816.upload.protocol=arduino
lilypad32816.upload.maximum_size=30720
lilypad32816.upload.speed=57600
lilypad32816.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
lilypad32816.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDA
lilypad32816.bootloader.extended_fuses=0x05
lilypad32816.bootloader.path=atmega
#Use 16 MHz bootloader:
lilypad32816.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_168_atmega328.hex
lilypad32816.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
lilypad32816.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
lilypad32816.build.mcu=atmega328p
# Use a 16 MHz clock
lilypad32816.build.f_cpu=16000000L
lilypad32816.build.core=arduino
lilypad32816.build.variant=standard
pro5v328.name=Arduino Pro or Pro Mini (5V, 16 MHz) w/ ATmega328
pro5v328.upload.protocol=arduino
pro5v328.upload.maximum_size=30720
pro5v328.upload.speed=57600
pro5v328.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
pro5v328.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDA
pro5v328.bootloader.extended_fuses=0x05
pro5v328.bootloader.path=atmega
pro5v328.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_168_atmega328.hex
pro5v328.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
pro5v328.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
pro5v328.build.mcu=atmega328p
pro5v328.build.f_cpu=16000000L
pro5v328.build.core=arduino
pro5v328.build.variant=standard
atmega328.name=Arduino Duemilanove w/ ATmega328
atmega328.upload.protocol=arduino
atmega328.upload.maximum_size=30720
atmega328.upload.speed=57600
atmega328.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
atmega328.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDA
atmega328.bootloader.extended_fuses=0x05
atmega328.bootloader.path=atmega
atmega328.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_168_atmega328.hex
atmega328.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
atmega328.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
atmega328.build.mcu=atmega328p
atmega328.build.f_cpu=16000000L
atmega328.build.core=arduino
atmega328.build.variant=standard
hmm... just studied them closely, and aside from the name, they are exactly the same !
here's the Uno one incase that helps as a reference...
uno.name=Arduino Uno
uno.upload.protocol=arduino
uno.upload.maximum_size=32256
uno.upload.speed=115200
uno.bootloader.low_fuses=0xff
uno.bootloader.high_fuses=0xde
uno.bootloader.extended_fuses=0x05
uno.bootloader.path=optiboot
uno.bootloader.file=optiboot_atmega328.hex
uno.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
uno.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
uno.build.mcu=atmega328p
uno.build.f_cpu=16000000L
uno.build.core=arduino
uno.build.variant=standard