Transcript:

Baking soda vs baking powder! What's the difference? When do you add what?

So baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO₃. The Na comes from a strong base, NaOH — sodium hydroxide; the HCO₃ comes from a weak acid, carbonic acid. When these two react, they form NaHCO₃, which is a basic salt.

So NaHCO₃ is basic — to activate this salt, which is baking soda, you need an acidic ingredient. Like: vinegar or lime juice or buttermilk or something like that. So if the recipe has an acidic ingredient in it, you add baking soda, because once the baking soda reacts with the acid, with the acidic ingredient — releases CO₂ — and that's what fluffs up the mixture.

Baking powder is baking soda plus a powder of an acid, right? It's already got the acid in it. So for ingredients — for recipes that don't have an acidic ingredient, you add baking powder, because to activate baking powder, all you need is moisture and heat — then it activates and it makes CO₂.

That's the difference!