Baking Powders I
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift each ingredient separately to remove coarse pieces.
Mix the sifted tartaric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and starch together.
Use
For rich cake, use about 20 parts of this baking powder for every 500 parts of flour.
For lean cake, use about 15 parts of this baking powder for every 500 parts of flour.
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
- Acid that reacts with sodium bicarbonate to release carbon dioxide for rising.
- Sodium bicarbonate
- Alkaline base that supplies the carbon dioxide gas when combined with an acid.
- Starch
- Absorbs moisture and keeps the powder dry, preventing the acid and base from reacting early.
The step that matters
Sift each ingredient separately. Removing coarse lumps keeps the acid and base evenly distributed, so the powder reacts uniformly and the cake rises evenly rather than in patches.
“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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