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    Home » Baking ingredients

    Published on: January 23, 2014 by Janice; Updated on: January 25, 2023 31 Comments

    The complete guide to baking soda in baking

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    two marmalade pudding cakes, but one is darker than the other. The darker cake was baked with 1 teaspoon baking soda, while the lighter cake was baked with ⅛ teaspoon baking soda to show how too much baking soda leads to browning of cakes

    Did you add too much baking soda to your recipe and you're wondering what it's going to do to your baked goods? Find out everything you need to know about baking soda in baking: what baking soda is, what baking soda does, what happens if you add too much baking soda, does it expire, and what happens if you use baking soda instead of baking powder.

    how different amounts of baking soda affect cakes | kitchen heals soul

    I shared with you a recipe for marmalade pudding cakes, pulled from my family's recipe box. The original recipe had a lot of baking soda, and the puddings browned significantly as they cooked. Like a good chemist, I blamed the baking soda and I wanted to investigate.

    I remade the pudding cakes, modifying the amount of baking soda and adding only 0.625 mL (⅛ a teaspoon) to the second batch, instead of the full 5 mL (1 teaspoon) called for in the original recipe. The second batch of steamed puddings were completely different: significantly lighter in colour, with a firmer, spongy texture.

    The only difference between the two cakes was the quantity of baking soda. Here's everything you need to know about baking soda, including what it is, what it does, how it works, how to store it, and how to replace it in baking.

    Jump to:
    • What it is
    • What it does
    • What happens if you add too much
    • How much to use in cakes and other recipes—ratio and rule of thumb
    • Shelf life, storage, and stability
    • Frequently asked questions
    • Conclusion
    • References and further reading

    What it is

    Formula and structure

    Baking soda is the common name for the chemical sodium bicarbonate (or bicarbonate of soda, as the Brits like to call it). The chemical formula for baking soda is NaHCO3. Sodium bicarbonate is basic (as in alkaline) and reacts under acidic conditions to produce carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas that lifts cake batters and helps your cakes rise (water and salt are also produced).

    Chemical formula and structure of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3).
    Chemical formula and structure of sodium bicarbonate (commonly known as baking soda)

    Use

    Sodium bicarbonate is a chemical leavener, unlike yeast. Yeast is a living organism, and when you feed it (like when you give it some water and some sugar), it too will produce gas, but through a different process known as fermentation: the yeast organisms eat sugar, digest it, and then they produce CO2 (along with other compounds like alcohol). 

    To summarize, your bread rises because the yeast in the bread dough eat sugar and produce gases, while your cakes rise because baking soda reacts with acids to produce a gas. This is also the principle behind baking powder, another leavening agent.

    Now, why does more or less baking soda make the two batches of cake look so different? There's more chemistry to discuss here, like the Maillard reaction.

    marmalade pudding cake baking soda amounts

    What it does

    Browning of baked goods via the Maillard reaction

    As you bake a cake or bread, you obviously notice a change in colour as the baked good turns golden brown, but you might also notice that the sweet flavours transform into something deeper, and not as sweet: French pastry chefs like to call this "golden brown delicious." The change in colour/flavour from cake batter to cake occurs because of the Maillard reaction: sugars break down/transform into brown-coloured polymers and aromatic substances that contribute to the aroma and flavour of baked goods.

    The Maillard reaction turns cakes from pale and very sweet to golden brown delicious. Baking soda and Maillard browning give Boston brown bread its signature taste and look.

    how different amounts of baking soda affect cakes | kitchen heals soul

    What happens if you add too much

    There's a fine line between the right amount of baking soda and the wrong amount. Make sure to use the right methods to measure your ingredients.

    Excessive browning and odd taste

    The Maillard reaction speeds up under basic conditions (like when you add to a recipe a lot of baking soda, which is alkaline, i.e. basic). Because the original marmalade pudding recipe had a large amount of baking soda in it, the resulting cake batter had a higher pH, and the Maillard reaction occurred faster. The puddings browned more quickly while steaming for an hour. More baking soda, more browning. 

    Unfortunately, with more baking soda, a lot of it reacts, but some of it (the excess) is left behind, unreacted. This lingering baking soda affects the flavour, which seems "sharper" and too much baking soda might cause your cakes and cookies to taste soapy even.

    two marmalade pudding cakes, but one is darker than the other. The darker cake was baked with 1 teaspoon baking soda, while the lighter cake was baked with ⅛ teaspoon baking soda to show how too much baking soda leads to browning of cakes

    The puddings made with a full teaspoon of baking soda taste less like marmalade and more like something stronger than the expected citrus flavour. That's the baking soda. The second batch of puddings had only an eighth of a teaspoon of baking soda, therefore the Maillard reaction occurred much slower. The steamed puddings have a more familiar "golden brown delicious" look to them. The taste of the marmalade is clear, and so is the delicious buttery flavour.

    At this point, you would think I'm done with the chemistry chat, but I'm not. I have one more thing to point out about baking soda.

    Tenderizing effect and impact on texture

    I noticed the original pudding cakes had a very tender crumb, and they were spongy and soft. On the other hand, the puddings made with one-eighth of the baking soda were still spongy, but much firmer. Once again, we can blame baking soda. Baking soda provides lots of rising power to the pudding cakes, but actually, I noticed that the cakes with less baking soda were more domed, while the cakes with more baking soda were flatter, but with a more bubbled texture on the sides and bottom.

    The baking soda raised the pH of the cake batter, thereby weakening the gluten in the flour: the texture and tenderness of the cakes were affected. Weaker gluten means a looser structure, with more spread, bigger air pockets (a more open crumb) and tenderness. So the cakes with more baking soda seemed to rise less, but in fact, that's because the gluten was weak and couldn't support the forming gas pockets. An adequate amount of baking soda (⅛ tsp) allowed the little pudding cakes to rise up and stay up, while an excess of baking soda caused the cakes to spread out, instead of up.

    How much to use in cakes and other recipes—ratio and rule of thumb

    Too much baking soda is clearly not a good thing, creating too many bubbles in cakes, causing cakes to sink, leading to over-browning, and producing an off-flavour that might even be soapy. So how much baking soda is enough?

    The basic rule for how much baking soda to add to a recipe is 1.25 mL (¼ teaspoon) of baking soda for each 125 grams (1 cup or 250 mL) of all-purpose flour. 

    In recipes where that contain large amounts of acidic ingredients, you would need 2.5 mL (½ teaspoon) of baking soda to neutralize 1 cup of a mildly acidic ingredient, like sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt. For example, this Irish soda bread with raisins is made with 500 mL (2 cups) of buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Of course, this is just a guideline and recipes may vary for other reasons (pan size, presence of "heavy" ingredients like nuts and dried fruit that might require extra leavening, etc.). 

    Shelf life, storage, and stability

    Baking powder does expire and can lose potency over time, given that baking powder contains both baking soda and an acid (or two) that it can react with, in presence of humidity. For this reason, it is super important to check baking powder periodically to make sure it is still reactive. On the other hand, baking soda is just sodium bicarbonate, a single compound and even if it's exposed to a little humidity from the air, it won't completely break down and lose potency the same way baking powder does. For this reason, baking soda does not expire. 

    The problem with older containers

    Though baking soda doesn't expire, you still have to be weary when baking with a container of baking soda that has been open for months (or even years). It's not that the baking soda will break down over time and stop working, but open containers of baking soda exposed to humidity will clump. You will have trouble incorporating clumpy baking soda into your cake batters and other baked goods, which can lead to clusters of baking soda in cake batters and cookie doughs. These clusters will lead to tiny patches of baking soda in your baked goods, causing brown spots and larger air pockets in your baked goods.

    Storage recommendations

    Given that baking soda will form clumps if exposed to moisture, it's important to store it in a cool, dry place, in a closed container that has a good seal to make sure moisture doesn't get in. Baking soda is often sold at the grocery store in a cardboard box that, once opened, doesn't shut, so you may want to either store the box in a bag with a seal or transfer the powder to an air-tight container with a proper lid. This way air exposure will be minimal and your baking soda won't clump. 

    Frequently asked questions

    Can baking soda be used instead of baking powder?

    You can replace the baking powder with baking soda in most recipes, as long as there's an acidic ingredient present in the list of ingredients. If not, you will have to also introduce an acid in your recipes, such as cream of tartar or citric acid (which are dry powders and would be suitable in cookie recipes with baking powder), or lemon juice, buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream (which are liquids and therefore more appropriate for cakes and muffins).

    Is it better to use baking soda or baking powder?

    Neither one is better and they have overlapping roles. Which you choose to use will depend on your recipes and your goals. In a cookie recipe, baking soda may be more appropriate to promote faster browning in a short baking time and also to help cookies spread out a little by weakening the gluten structure. In cakes, baking powder is more convenient because it is a complete leavening agent that will react regardless of the pH and the other ingredients present in your recipe.

    Can I use baking powder instead of baking soda in cookies?

    Replacing baking soda with baking powder in a cookie recipe will change the texture of the cookie, the colour, and also the thickness. Cookies made with baking powder may brown less in the oven, they may rise taller, and spread less, whereas a cookie made with baking soda may spread out more, be thinner, and bake to a deeper golden brown colour.

    Conclusion

    Baking soda is an important leavening agent in baking. We all use it and it is a vital ingredient in commercial and homemade baking powder. But actually, baking soda does so much more than just cause cakes to rise. Baking soda is alkaline, and as such, adding it to recipes means that it may affect the colour, flavour, and texture of baked goods, as does too much baking powder.

    References and further reading

    • How Baking Works, 3rd edition. Paula Figoni.  Buy it on Amazon.
    • On Food and Cooking. Harold McGee. Check it out on Amazon.
    • Ratio. Michael Ruhlman. Check it out on Amazon.

    More Baking ingredients

    • Sourdough starter
    • How to make vanilla extract
    • How to make vanilla sugar
    • Sugar in baking
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    Baking resources

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  • Baking ingredients and pantry staples
  • Baking substitutions
  • Common baking conversions
  • Choosing baking pans
  • How to measure ingredients for baking
  • Mixing methods
  • Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Tora says

      January 23, 2014 at 3:26 pm

      This was incredibly interesting, thank you so much for sharing! I have attempted to caramelize onions faster by adding baking soda. It sort of worked, but I think I got too excited and impatient and added way too much of it so the onion just disintegrated. Now I shall explore more of this wonder that is baking soda! Thank you.

      Reply
    2. Adrienne says

      January 23, 2014 at 4:35 pm

      Super interesting! Great post. So well written! Such a good read.

      Reply
    3. Isabelle @ Crumb says

      January 23, 2014 at 5:54 pm

      Thanks for taking us for a walk on the nerdy side. 🙂 I've always been intrigued by the chemistry of baking... after years in the kitchen, I have a pretty good idea of what happens when I adjust the amounts of certain ingredients, but I couldn't tell you why it happens. Seriously, love everything about this post. Please write more!

      Reply
    4. Liz says

      January 23, 2014 at 6:08 pm

      Really interesting blog, Janice!

      Reply
    5. wannafoodie says

      January 23, 2014 at 7:39 pm

      Awesome post, especially the visual/side by side comparison!

      Reply
    6. bellwilde says

      January 23, 2014 at 9:26 pm

      Thank you for the education. I was curious which tasted the best to you?

      Reply
      • Janice Lawandi says

        January 24, 2014 at 2:07 am

        Honestly, I like the cakes with 1/8 tsp baking soda better (sorry family recipe!). The flavour of the marmalade was much more prominent and so was the rich butter taste in the puddings with 1/8 tsp baking soda!

        Reply
    7. Mardi Michels says

      January 24, 2014 at 11:42 am

      Janice - I LOVE this post! Please make the "chemistry in the kitchen" a regular feature!

      Reply
      • Christelle is flabbergasting says

        January 24, 2014 at 3:10 pm

        I AGREE with Mardi!

        Reply
      • Janice Lawandi says

        January 26, 2014 at 6:05 pm

        Okay, okay 😉

        And thank you for the encouragement!

        Reply
      • Jerlyn says

        September 03, 2020 at 5:36 am

        Hi Janice,

        Thank you so much for this awesome experiment with baking soda. I'm glad I came up to page. Very informative. I am new to baking and so I wanted to curious to know what each ingredient does in a recipe. I hope to read more baking experiments from you. Have a nice day!

        Reply
    8. Christelle is flabbergasting says

      January 24, 2014 at 3:05 pm

      You didn't bore me at all! So interesting! So, which one tasted the best for you? (at 1/8 tsp?)

      Reply
      • Janice Lawandi says

        January 26, 2014 at 6:04 pm

        I'm glad I didn't bore you 😉
        I definitely preferred the flavour of the puddings made with 1/8 tsp baking soda. They had a better butter flavour and the marmalade was more recognizable. I'd definitely use 1/8 tsp baking soda next time!

        Reply
    9. Franceska says

      January 24, 2014 at 3:34 pm

      I just loved this post! Please keep posting things like this! It's really interesting 🙂

      Reply
      • Janice Lawandi says

        January 26, 2014 at 6:05 pm

        I will try! I just have to come up with more topics and examples 😉

        Reply
    10. Mallory Frayn says

      January 24, 2014 at 9:20 pm

      Not boring at all, I love science! I cannot believe how drastic the colour difference was though.

      Reply
      • Janice Lawandi says

        January 26, 2014 at 6:02 pm

        I know! Isn't it amazing! And it's the exact same "steam time" in both cases. I even asked my mom about the darker color, and she says that her mom's pudding cakes were always this dark. It's really the baking soda!

        Reply
    11. Tory says

      January 26, 2014 at 3:18 pm

      Hi there - just came across your blog from a pin on Pinterest. I like your blog quite a bit and hope to look around more later. Just wondering if you are perhaps a food scientist or a chemist? (I'm just finishing up my bachelors in Food Science).

      Reply
      • Janice Lawandi says

        January 26, 2014 at 5:49 pm

        Hi Tory, thanks for stopping by! I am a chemist. I did a BSc in Biochem, and then a PhD in Organic Chemistry, but it sadly wasn't food related. I hope you enjoyed your bachelors in Food Science. I bet the labs are even more fun than in Chemistry 😉

        Reply
    12. Stephanie says

      January 27, 2014 at 3:00 am

      Fabulous post!! I love the science behind baking and your kitchen experiments are always awesome

      Reply
    13. Amber | Bluebonnets and Brownies says

      January 27, 2014 at 3:47 pm

      This is SO interesting! Now I want to see you try a baked good with baking soda versus baked soda (i.e. baking soda that's been baked low and slow - it's how commercial cookie makers add that distinctive "crunch" to their cookies.)

      Reply
    14. Laura says

      November 10, 2017 at 2:27 am

      You can use baking soda plus an acidic ingredient as leavening for all kinds of dough. I have made everything from pizza to rolls and pies. Basically its using 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda and 4 table spoons of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar per 500 g of flour.

      With this combination the sour taste is used up by the baking soda and all is left is a very fine aftertaste, similar to yeast but a bit more neutral. Metallic aftertastes like with baking powder are avoided ( there are organic baking pwders where this is also the case).

      The only downside is the dough needs to be processed right away, the bubbles start to form after activation. But this was not even an issue with pizzas, if the toppings are ready and the sour ingredient for activation is added last.

      The upside is zero rising or preparation times, and a very fine taste of the dough.

      Reply
      • Janice says

        November 26, 2017 at 9:50 pm

        I've never leavened a pizza dough with baking soda! That's so smart and I love the idea of zero rising time!

        Reply
    15. Clare says

      July 23, 2019 at 3:08 pm

      Hi, I made a mistake and used tbs instead of tsp. As in your experiment the centre collapsed. I wonder given the 4 tablespoons instead of 4 teaspoons, the cake is still safe to eat. It’s chocolate so has a nice flavour though the aftertaste leaves a slight chalkiness in your mouth.

      Reply
    16. Bonnie says

      August 24, 2019 at 8:27 pm

      If I put too much baking sofa in my brownie recipe, will it hurt my health? I put 2 teaspoons instead of a half teaspoon, when I realized it I could not take it out without throwing out all my dry ingredients which of course contained cocoa. So instead I added half of the recipe of all other ingredients. My ingredients included black beans, maple syrup, pumpkin pure’ as well as almond milk, oat and rice flour, baking powder, cocoa; to mention the main ingredients. They turned out okay and taste okay but the extra amount of baking soda worries me.

      Reply
    17. David H says

      October 03, 2019 at 11:57 pm

      I have an urgent question. I recently noticed that my gluten free devil's food cake recipe made a really light cake that was lighter and raised higher than my yellow. So I decided to use the 2 tsps baking soda and 1 tsp vinegar in my yellow cake( just like the devil's food recipe,) instead of 2 tsp baking powder. I also used 1/2 tsp baking powder. The cake came better than ever with one exception--the inside of the cake was brown when I cut into it. Mostly the bottom half and in an hombre-like way. Meaning browner toward the bottom and lighter brown/tan starting at the midway point down the cake. I baked it 3 times and it was the same thing each time. Do you have any idea if baking soda would be the reason for this? I am desperate to know

      Reply
    18. Judy says

      November 19, 2019 at 2:19 pm

      the vanilla cake recipe i use calls for 1tbsp plus 1tsp of baking soda....other ingredients are: sugar,flour,salt,milk,vinegar(to be poured in milk),oil, and vanilla extract.....the cake is super moist and taste great, but the cake turns brown (in the "body" of the cake")...so if this is caused by the baking soda, what would happen if i didn't use the full amount of baking soda the recipe calls for?

      Reply
    19. ramakrishna says

      November 01, 2021 at 1:42 pm

      Do you suggest to use less amount of bak.soda as much as possible.
      Next please tell us what is the amount of soda (tsp) to be added for 1/2
      cup of brown sugar used in a cake receipe.
      Also please tell us for 1/2 cup of cocoa powder when used in a cake.

      Reply
    20. ramakrishna says

      November 01, 2021 at 1:51 pm

      Do you suggest to use less amount of bak.soda as much as possible.
      pl tell us how much bak.soda(tsp) to be added for 1/2 cup of brown sugar in a cake receipe/

      Reply
    21. Marta says

      January 14, 2022 at 7:57 pm

      Janice,
      Thank you very much for your most interesting scientific article from which I learned a lot. Recently, I baked an orange nut bread which called for 2 1/4 cup of flour, 2 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of orange zest, & 3/4 cup of orange juice (from Better Homes & Gardens). The skin of walnuts after baking turned out very dark. I would appreciate it if you would comment on the possible cause of walnuts turning so dark. Could it have been baking soda in combination with orange zest & orange juice? Would walnuts still be safe to eat?

      Reply
      • Janice says

        January 17, 2022 at 2:39 pm

        Hi Marta,
        Just like with blueberries turning green in response to pH, walnuts may turn blue. This can happen if the walnuts came in contact with baking soda, which perhaps wasn't evenly incorporated into the dry ingredients and the batter. Like with blueberries turning green, it looks weird, but it's safe to eat. It's just a colour change that you are seeing. I wrote about it for blueberries here: https://bakeschool.com/blueberries-can-turn-green-in-your-muffins-and-thats-okay/

        Taking the time to mix the dry ingredients with the baking soda well before mixing everything with them should help you avoid this in the future! Hope that helps!

        Reply

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