Bicarb or baking powder?

[DaphneMoon]

Can someone tell me if Bicarbonate of Soda and Baking powder are the same thing?

No they are different. Do you need to substitute?

not exactly. baking powder is bicarb already mixed with the acidic elemnt that it needs to actually work. If you jsut use bicarb, you need to add the acidic element yourself, eg lemon.

If the recipe has milk in it you can add a squeeze of lemon juice to the milk and use bicarb instead of baking powder. You can't use bicarb as a straight substitute for baking powder as it will taste disgusting - it needs acid to neutralise it.

It's just that I have seen several recipes with one or the other in. I have not noticed whether the recipe with bicarb ones requires lemon too. I am particularly crap at making cakes and want to find the perfect recipe. Tried to make my DS a cake last week end for his birthday it was a total disaster despite the fact that I followed the recipe to the letter. I do have a recipe of my late mothers which has bicarb in and I thought it was a bit strange. I'm sure it does not have lemon in though. Thanks for your advice, will stick with the baking powder.

I'm wondering if my mother actually meant baking powder now!

Right, I have just been cutting and pasting recipes from the Mumsnet recipe page (which is why I asked the question in the first place!) and have gone and look back at a chocolate cake one. It uses Bicarb, and has milk in but no mention of lemon!

Bicarb can be used where there are other acidic ingredients in the recipe already (often stuff that you wouldn't think of as acidic). But if there's nothing acidic to neutralise the bicarb the resulting thing will taste soapy. You can (generally) use baking powder if a recipe specifies bicarb (but use a bit more baking powder than the amount of bicarb specified), but NEVER use bicarb if a recipe specifies baking powder (unless you add cream of tartar, lemon juice or something similar to react with the bicarb).

Interestingly, this is the second time this question's been asked in the last couple of days -- I wonder if there's a baking resurgence going on?

Well I was trying to save money by making my DS birthday cake, but it was such a disaster it cost me twice as much in the end as I had to go and buy one. I am now determined to find the perfect recipe. This is one of the chocolate cake recipe off the mumsnet recipe list. Where would the acidic be.

7oz self raising flour
5oz dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
2 tablespoons golden syrup
150ml milk
150ml sumflower oil
2 eggs

Perhaps the financial situation coupled with lots of babies being born in spring meaning more birthday cakes is the reason lots of baking going on!

Cocoa and brown sugar tend to get listed as acidic. I'd probably have used baking powder instead, though, but not sure how much.

There's an overview article here that covers the subject quite well.

Thanks port.

In the recipe...do you warm the milk and then add the bicarb?? if so this is correct? The warm milk activates the bicarb and makes it foam (is lactose an acid I wonder?)

(looking up recipe) No, the recipe just chucks everything in together and mixes.

What was wrong with the cake when you made it, DM?

(It's this one, I assume)