Baking Powders
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift each ingredient separately to remove coarse pieces.
Mix
Mix sodium bicarbonate with starch.
Add tartaric acid to the mixture.
Use
For 500 parts of flour, use 20 parts for rich cake and 15 parts for lean cake.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Tartaric acid
- Reacts with the bicarbonate to release carbon dioxide, which makes the batter rise.
- Sodium bicarbonate
- Base that reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide for rising.
- Starch
- Absorbs moisture and separates the acid and base so they do not react early in storage.
The step that matters
Sift each ingredient separately. Coarse lumps of acid or bicarbonate react unevenly in the batter, leaving pockets of gas and uneven rising. Sifting breaks up clumps so the powder mixes evenly and the leavening is consistent throughout the cake.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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