Baking Powder And Baking Soda | What's the difference?

Ever wondered what the difference is between baking powder and baking soda (bi carbonated soda)?

Considering they look almost identical, it isn't hard to imagine why people might think they are interchangeable.

 

BUT IN THE WORLD OF BAKING, THE DIFFERENCE IN THESE TWO INGREDIENTS IS HUGE! 

It all comes down to what activates them 🤓

Let's take a deeper look at Baking Powder first. 

Baking powder is a leavening (raising) agent that you'll find in most cake recipes.

It's added to a mixture so that a baked good will rise up as it bakes.

Baking Powder only requires water or a liquid to activate it. 

📌Fun Fact - baking powder actually has a small amount of baking soda and cream of tartar in it too. Cream of tartar is acidic, so when liquid is added it reacts with the bi carb and  create lift!

Now let's examine the role of Baking Soda (Bicarbonated Soda) in a recipe.

Baking soda is also considered a leavening agent, but it requires an acid like vinegar, lemon juice or buttermilk to activate it.  (or even yoghurt or sour cream)

In cakes, it's often added along with baking powder to provide extra rising oomph, especially if a heavy ingredient is used in the mixture like sour cream and we want to lighten the texture.  

📌Fun Fact - Yoghurt, sour cream and cultured buttermilk are all on the acidic side, which is why they're often added to cake and muffin recipes where baking soda is an ingredient. Baking soda mixed with acid foams, which equals lightness in the finished product!

 In cookies, baking soda is sometimes listed together with baking powder, because the recipe might want the cookies to rise a little, as well as spread too.

But, you'll often find baking soda listed on it's own in a cookie recipe, without any baking powder included at all 🤔

Why? Because some cookie recipes, require the dough to spread as it bakes rather than rise.

So, without a baking tin to direct the pressure up like when baking a cake, baking soda will help cookies to spread outwards before they start to firm up and finish baking.

While baking powder and baking soda are both leavening agents that cause your mixture to expand, the different liquids they require to activate them means they are definitely not interchangeable!

So if a well meaning person tells you to go ahead and use one in place of the other...ahem...just ignore that wayward piece of advice and stick with the facts and you'll be a much better baker for it! 😎

 

If you've read this far, congratulations...you've expanded your baking knowledge to include the workings of each of these two important, but totally NOT INTERCHANGEABLE baking ingredients 😉

So what to do with all this newfound baking knowledge?

Why not make it worth your while and bake this Blueberry Lemon Tea Cake 🫐🍋🫐🍋🫐

It's a delicious way to see how these two ingredients work together in practice!

📌Want to know more about baking? Download my Ultimate Baking Tips Guide 👉 HERE 👈 

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, if you have any questions at all just let me know.

Happy Baking!

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