What It Means
Baking soda and baking powder are both chemical leaveners: they make carbon dioxide, and the gas lifts cakes, cookies and quick breads. Soda is sodium bicarbonate, a base, and King Arthur Baking says it only reacts when the recipe gives it an acid to react with. Powder is baking soda already mixed with an acid, cream of tartar, so it has both halves of the reaction in the can and works with or without an acidic ingredient.
Try It: Does Your Recipe Have an Acid for Baking Soda?
Tick every ingredient your recipe uses. These are the acids King Arthur Baking lists as partners for baking soda.
There's an acid here for baking soda to react with, which is why recipes like this often call for soda.
No acid from the list. Baking soda alone would have nothing to react with, so a recipe like this leans on baking powder, which carries its own acid.
Follow the leaveners your recipe names. This shows why they're there.
How It Sounds at Home
- "Wait, is it a teaspoon of soda or powder?"
- "My pancakes were flat, I think the baking powder's old."
- "The buttermilk is what makes the baking soda work."
The Breakdown
Side by side, per King Arthur Baking
| Baking soda | Baking powder | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Sodium bicarbonate, a base | Baking soda mixed with an acid, such as cream of tartar |
| Needs an acid in the recipe | Yes | No, it brings its own |
| When it reacts | When it meets the acid in a wet batter | Double-acting kinds react twice: when mixed with liquid, and again in the oven |
| Acids that pair with it | Buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, natural cocoa | Not needed |
Pick baking soda if the recipe already has an acidic ingredient, like buttermilk pancakes, a lemon loaf, or a brownie made with natural cocoa. The acid gives the soda something to react with.
Pick baking powder if the recipe has no acid to speak of, like a basic vanilla cake made with regular milk. It supplies the lift without needing anything else in the bowl.
Both in one recipe. Some recipes call for both. Follow the amounts as written, since the recipe was tested with them.
Try it today. Read the leavener line of a recipe you bake often, then run its ingredients through the acid list above.
Good to Know
The two aren't one for one. If you're out of baking powder, Buhata's ingredient substitutionsIngredient substitutionsReplacing an ingredient you don't have with another in a measured amount, such as all-purpose flour and cornstarch in place of cake flour. See more page gives King Arthur Baking's recipe for making it from baking soda, cream of tartar and cornstarch. For any other swap, use a substitution a baking source such as King Arthur Baking has tested rather than trading one for the other by the spoonful.
FAQ
What's the difference between baking soda and baking powder?
Baking soda is a base that needs an acid in the recipe to make carbon dioxide. Baking powder already contains baking soda plus an acid, cream of tartar, so it works without one, according to King Arthur Baking.
What does double-acting baking powder mean?
It reacts twice, King Arthur Baking explains: once when it dissolves in the wet batter, and again when the heat of the oven hits it.
Can I use baking powder instead of baking soda in cookies?
The two do different jobs, so a straight swap changes the result. Stick to the recipe's leaveners, or use a tested substitution from a baking source such as King Arthur Baking.
Do It in Buhata
Shopping and Meals
When a recipe for the week in Meals in Buhata calls for baking soda or baking powder, check the cupboard and add whichever is low to the Shopping list.
Open BuhataRelated Terms and Categories
- Ingredient substitutions
Replacing an ingredient you don't have with another in a measured amount, such as all-purpose flour and cornstarch in place of cake flour.
- Buttermilk substitute
A stand-in for buttermilk: 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar plus milk to make 1 cup, left to stand 5 minutes before you use it.
- Room temperature ingredients
Ingredients such as butter and eggs warmed from fridge-cold before baking; King Arthur Baking puts room-temperature butter at about 68°F to 72°F.
- Recipe scaling
Changing how much a recipe makes by multiplying every ingredient by one conversion factor: the yield you want divided by the yield it makes.
- Egg substitute
(1) A carton product made from egg whites, sold in place of whole eggs; (2) any ingredient, like flax meal and water, used instead of egg in a recipe.
Sources
King Arthur Baking, "What's the difference between baking soda and baking powder?"
Last updated .