Difference between Baking Soda and Baking Powder

Often we have customers coming into the store and wanted to buy Baking Powder, and accidentally bought Baking Soda instead. 

It may be a little confusing because both sounds the same, but in fact they are totally different chemically. To put it simply, both are leaveners, in which they make your dough/batter to rise. However, sometimes you may see some recipes are using baking soda, some using baking powder, while some use both. Our advice is don’t try to be creative and just follow the recipe exactly. (You don’t say?)

But for the sake of learning we are just going to tell you anyway. In this post we are not going deep into the chemical components Baking Soda and Baking Powder has, because they are actually many articles on the internet explaining the usage of them. For example this article explained the benefits and uses for Baking Soda other than in baking itself. 

On the internet you will find long-tail explanation of the differences of these two and some of them are so textbook-like it makes you thinks that you have skipped your Chemistry class the entire time. So now you must be wondering, what are the difference exactly? 

To summarize, the main difference is …..(Drumroll….) ACID.

Bear in mind that Baking Soda is about 4 times stronger than Baking Powder.
General rule of thumb is 1/4 teaspoon of Baking Soda to 1 cup of flour (140g), which means 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder to 1 cup of flour. 

Baking Soda required acid (liquid) to react. For better understanding, take a look at your recipe. If your recipe calls for Baking Soda, usually you will also need ingredients like lemon juice, buttermilk, yogurt, cream of tartar (dry acid) or sometimes, cornstarch. So you ask why your cake does not rise even though you have done exactly everything in the recipe, maybe that’s why, because the reaction of baking soda and the acid loses quickly. That also explain why cookie dough can last longer in refrigerator, as it uses dry acid, which does not react until it is heated (Put in the oven).  
P/S: if your products have bitter or metallic taste, most probably it’s because of too much Baking Soda. 

Baking Powder, on the other hand, is a mixture of ingredients which already included Baking Soda, Cream of Tartar or sometimes cornstarch. Usually you will be using Baking Powder in recipe which doesn’t contain additional acid like vinegar or lemon.

Sometimes you will see some recipe required both Baking Soda AND Baking Powder. That is because the recipe itself has too much acid in it and you need additional leavening for it. 

So that’s it! Hope this little articles help! 
Happy baking!