{"id":13455,"date":"2020-01-20T19:42:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T00:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bakeschool.com\/?p=13455"},"modified":"2025-05-20T12:16:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T16:16:58","slug":"what-is-baking-powder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bakeschool.com\/what-is-baking-powder\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Baking Powder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Baking powder is an essential ingredient in baking <\/strong>that helps create lighter cakes and cookies. In this post, we'll cover everything you need to know about this essential leavening agent<\/a>: the difference between baking powder and baking soda, single-acting vs. double-acting baking powders, how to use it, and even how to make your own homemade baking powder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What It Is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Baking powder is a chemical leavening agent<\/a> that combines sodium bicarbonate (baking soda<\/a>) and an acid (or even two acids!) in one single dry, white powder. It's sold in grocery stores and bulk food stores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It's an easy way to get your cakes to rise without having to whip egg whites, fiddle with yeast, or worry about adjusting pH because everything you need to make your baked goods rise is in the powder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83e\uddea How Baking Powder Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you add baking soda to a cake recipe, you'll notice that you also have to add an acidic ingredient<\/a> (like vinegar, sour cream, buttermilk, etc). On the other hand, when you bake with baking powder, the acid is already present in the commercial powder. All you have to do is whisk (or sift) it with the rest of your dry ingredients. Easy peasy! This classic vanilla cake with milk chocolate frosting<\/a> is a great example of a cake made with just baking powder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For baking powder to react and for your cakes to rise, it has to first come into contact with water. As a dry powder, this raising agent is quite stable: the acid and the sodium bicarbonate don't react in the dry powder. It doesn't react until it comes into contact with liquids in your cake batter or cookie dough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some baking powders won't react until the mixture is hydrated and<\/span> heated. This is especially true of double-acting formulas which first react at room temperature when mixed into cake batters and cookie doughs, but they react a second time when the batter or dough is placed in the oven to bake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Role of Cornstarch <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ingredients in baking powder are essential for controlling when it reacts. Think about it: if it were to react as a dry powder in the container it's sold in, by the time you add it to your cake batters and cookie doughs, it would be spent. There wouldn't be much left behind but salts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the general formula of baking powder can be summarized as baking soda plus an acid, there's more to it than just this. Commercial powders also contain cornstarch to keep it dry and free of lumps<\/strong>. This way it won't react before you use it. Cornstarch prevents the product from reacting prematurely and acts as a sort of \"buffer\" between the two reagents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83c\udd9a Double-Acting Versus Single-Acting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The acid in baking powder varies depending on the brand and whether or not the product is single-acting or double-acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Single-acting baking powder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Single-acting baking powder is made with one acid, which reacts right away at room temperature when hydrated. Because single-acting powders are so fast-acting, they aren't sold commercially anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example of single-acting baking powder would be homemade baking powder made with cream of tartar. It reacts quickly at room temperature and over 70 % of it reacts within minutes of mixing into cake batters. When you bake with homemade baking powder, you have to work quickly so that the batter is mixed and baked immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Double-acting baking powder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I bake with Magic baking powder, produced by Kraft (like Rumford baking powder sold in the US). It's made of cornstarch, monocalcium phosphate, and sodium bicarbonate. Monocalcium phosphate is the acid that reacts with sodium bicarbonate to produce the gas carbon dioxide, which makes your cakes rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it seems as though Magic baking powder would be single-acting because it contains only one acid, it's actually double-acting because it reacts in two stages: a portion reacts at room temperature when your batters are first mixed (under 60 % reacts at room temperature), then the rest reacts once heated when you place your cakes and cookies in the oven. So Magic and Rumford react in two separate stages, which is why they are labelled as double-acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the US, other double-acting baking powders include Davis, Kraft Calumet<\/a>, and Clabber Girl<\/a>. All these contain the same ingredients as Magic and Rumford, so cornstarch, monocalcium phosphate, and sodium bicarbonate, but Davis, Calumet, and Clabber Girl also contain a second acid, sodium aluminum sulfate. This second acid is slow-acting and only reacts with sodium bicarbonate when the mixture is hydrated and heated<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The baking powder at Bulk Barn is labelled as double-acting, as is Fleischmann's. Both contain sodium acid pyrophosphate, as well as sodium bicarbonate, cornstarch and monocalcium phosphate. Note that sodium acid pyrophosphate is very slow-acting, but the downside to using it is that sodium acid pyrophosphate can impart a bitter aftertaste, which is why it's usually combined with other acids and used sparingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Importance of Double-Acting Baking Powder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bakeries may depend on double-acting baking powder in their baked goods to ensure that cake batters (or muffin batters) that are made ahead of time can be stored in the refrigerator, but will still rise when the product is baked. The second acid ensures that if your batter waits around a little, your cakes will still have enough chemical leavener leftover to rise in the oven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Determining It's Double-Acting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Most baking powders sold in stores are double-acting. Many brands will include this information on the label, but some don't. To be sure, you will have to analyze the ingredient label, specifically the acid(s). The ingredient list will inevitably mention cornstarch and sodium bicarbonate. The other ingredients might be <\/p>\n\n\n\n