earlier this morning my sister and me were making cupcakes for my moms birthday and i followed a recipe i found online and it says i need 1 3/4 teaspoons of baking soda but i dont know what is a good baking soda? i tried fanta but i dont think its a good baking soda because it didn't make the cupcakes rise. how can i tell baking soda apart from normal soda?? any suggestions for good baking sodas? (not fanta cause i already tried it and it didn't work)
Responses (1)
There is some chemistry involved, and a lot of fairly good cooks don't know the chemistry. "Soda" is a casual term for several basic compounds. "Basic" means they neutralize acids. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, so when it neutralizes vinegar you get water, CO2 bubbles, and a salt called sodium acetate. Sodium acetate tastes kinda sweet and that is the only use for it. If you use lemon juice you get sodium citrate instead, a slightly different taste. Your problem is you have no acid in the recipe, so no bubbles. When you use baking soda you have to use vinegar, buttermilk, cream of tartar, lemon juice, or any sort of acid to make the reaction.
Baking powder is a mixture of soda, dry acid, and some other chemicals that react at baking temperatures, and that is why it is called "double acting". The soda and acid do their thing with the addition of any water-based liquid, and the other chemicals release more bubbles when the batter gets warm. So if the recipe calls for baking powder then you might not need soda. But still, if you use soda you have to use some sort of acid to make it work.
If you want something dramatic, use a can of lemon-lime soda pop to raise your biscuits. That works best with a cake mix.