Confused by recipe calling for both baking soda and baking?

Question

I have been reading previous questions on the difference between baking soda and baking powder, the former is activated by an acid and the latter by water. I have an old family coffee cake recipe which calls for both but I don't know that any of the other ingredients are acidic (butter, sugar, cinnamon, sour cream, eggs, salt and flour). If indeed none of these ingredients are acidic, is there some other logic for using both baking soda and powder. One last piece of info...the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp of baking soda and 1-1/2 tsp baking powder. Any info would be appreciated.

Answer 1

If you make a cake with baking soda instead of baking powder what you basically get is brownies. Baking powder helps with the rising of the cake or items being made with it.
Baking powder consists of baking soda, one or more acid salts (cream of tartar and sodium aluminum sulfate) plus cornstarch to absorb any moisture so a reaction does not take place until a liquid is added to the batter. Most baking powder used today is double-acting which means it reacts to liquid and heat and happens in two stages. The first reaction takes place when you add the baking powder to the batter and it is moistened. One of the acid salts reacts with the baking soda and produces carbon dioxide gas. The second reaction takes place when the batter is placed in the oven. The gas cells expand causing the batter to rise. Because of the two stages, baking of the batter can be delayed for about 15-20 minutes without it losing its leavening power.

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center. Too little baking powder results in a tough cake that has poor volume and a compact crumb.

Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate or bicarbonate of soda (alkali) is about four times as strong as baking powder. It is used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient (e.g. vinegar, citrus juice, sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, chocolate, cocoa (not Dutch-processed), honey, molasses (also brown sugar), fruits and maple syrup). Baking soda starts to react and release carbon dioxide gas as soon as it is added to the batter and moistened. Make sure to bake the batter immediately.

Baking soda has an indefinite shelf life if stored in a sealed container in a cool dry place. Too much baking soda will result in a soapy taste with a coarse, open crumb. Baking soda causes reddening of cocoa powder when baked, hence the name Devil's Food Cake.
In the case of your cake recipe the sour cream is your source of acidity.

Answer 2

The sour cream in your recipe is adding the necessary acid to activate the baking soda. The reason for having both baking soda and baking powder is to have a two step leavening process. The baking soda reacts to the sour cream immediately, giving you a lighter batter at the start. The baking powder takes over within a few minutes to further lighten the batter, and continues as heat is added to continue the process in the oven. It also buys you some time, if there is a short wait before the batter hits the oven heat. In recipes using only baking soda, you have to move quick from initial mixing to in the oven, or the whole thing will collapse. The batter isn't set enough to trap the gasses and rise soon enough. With the baking powder, you get a two step rise, a slow one at the start in reaction to the acidic ingredients and the second one is heat activated. While it is true that baking powder is activated by water, that is only really true for the first initial leavening. Most commercial baking powders now days are double acting- meaning you have a second agent present that reacts more vigorously with heat than water alone.
Coffee cakes quite frequently call for both, as the batter is very heavy with eggs and butter, and usually either sour cream or buttermilk. If you depended only on soda, it would be hard to make the oven in time, and it would end up heavy. If you make it with baking powder alone, it would not be as heavy, but it also would not be as light as using the combination of the two. Using only baking soda would be more difficult, if you didn't have enough acidic ingredients to activate it all you would end up with a funky tasting cake leaving a nasty metallic taste in your mouth. Baking powder alone would be hard to do as well, as it relies mostly on heat to trigger the reaction. With a heavy batter like a coffee cake, you would have to use an awful lot of it, and the texture would change from the rough crumb of a coffee cake to a denser finer crumb like a regular cake. It has to do with the chemistry going on between the ingredients that determines what kind of cake you end up with.

Answer 3

If it bakes properly and it tastes like it's supposed to, is there a problem? Sorry, not trying to be funny or smarmy, I'm trying to figure out whether you think there's something wrong with the recipe?

The website below seems to say that the baking powder includes both the baking soda and a dry acid, so it's already IN the baking powder. You just have to add the liquids (sour cream, eggs) to make the reaction.

Answer 4

The baking soda is an agent that acts/provokes raising in dough, crusts, cakes etc. It is a leavening agent through the emission of carbon dioxide. The baking powder pretty much acts the same except it reacts more easily at lower temperatures and does not need a liquid reactor (water, milk) thus some recipes will call for both to make sure of proper rising and even cooking/fluffiness.

Answer 5

Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. When baking soda is combined with moisture and an acidic ingredient (e.g., yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), the resulting chemical reaction produces bubbles of carbon dioxide that expand under oven temperatures, causing baked goods to rise. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so you need to bake recipes which call for baking soda immediately, or else they will fall flat! Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it includes the acidifying agent already (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). Baking powder is available as single-acting baking powder and as double-acting baking powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to dough, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven.

Answer 6

i don't know what the logic is in using both baking powder and baking soda. i couldn't find it in my cook book, so i looked in the dictionary. baking powder is a leavening agent that raises dough by the gas (carbon dioxide) produced when baking soda and acid react in the presence of water: it usually contains baking soda mixed with either starch or flour and cream of tartar or other acid-forming substance, as anhydrous sodium aluminum sulfate.

baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, used as a leavening agent and as an antacid.

now, go ahead and make your family recipe, don't question it, just put them both in and enjoy!!!!!!

Answer 7

Sour cream seems to me like it might be acidic. Or it is possible that baking powder is the acid, since you said it's activated by water. Hmmm, but that's interesting, I'm not quite sure.

Answer 8

ok a quic lesson in cullinary arts for you
baking powder is made from equal parts of the fallowing
baking soda,cornstarch,and cream of tatter
cream of tatter being the acid to activte the baking soda ant corstarrch as a buffer
sour cream also has acids ,however low
anyway your alklines are there

Answer 9

I admit that when took up baking at school that I never heard of use both but have agree with the other person unless your making something flat you need baking powder

Answer 10

The eggs are your source of acid (if your car gets egged, they'll take the paint off the car if you don't wash them off soon enough).