Gah! Used baking powder instead of soda-does it matter?

[storybrooke]

Little one has been ill and had an accident last night in our bed poor thing, anyway I threw on a load of baking powder and pressed it in, don't seem to have any baking soda in and there's a little smell still after hoovering it off (was on for two hours!)

Any idea if I put another layer on and leave it will it work the same as baking soda in removing the smell?

Baking powder contains baking soda and cream of tartar so it isn't going to be as effective as baking soda/bicarb of soda alone.

There's American baking soda, British baking powder , British washing soda.. I've tried googling but never quite sure which is what. It would be useful to know.
Anyone ?

American baking soda = British bicarbonate of soda though this is increasingly being referred to as baking soda it seems. It is edible and suitable for a host of cooking and housekeeping tasks. It is a brilliant odour neutraliser.

Washing soda is a laundry and cleaning product. It is NOT edible and is great for softening the water in your washing machine so you can use less detergent. It also cuts through grease and is great flushed down gunged up kitchen sinks with boiling water.

Hope that helps.

Oh and baking powder is, as per my first post on this thread, a mix of bicarb and cream of tartar used as a raising agent in baking. If you use a lot of bicarb in baking, it has an unpleasant taste. You tend not to get that with baking powder because it isn't all bicarb. That said, I would only ever use bicarb in scones, just not lots of it.

Wowfudge, it does help, thank you. So when it tells you to make a paste with baking soda to get the grease off oven shelves, it still means bicarb ?
Not that I do much of that sort of thing, but I like to know the theory.

Hi Footle, yes it means exactly that.