Virtually all bakers have faced this situation; following a recipe that requires baking soda but you only have baking powder or vice versa. What do you do? Can you substitute? Or you haven’t baked for a while, you make your much-loved cake recipe and use baking powder and it didn’t rise as it should. What could have gone wrong? Baking soda and baking powder are both leaveners used in baking, but they are chemically different. The easiest explanation it is that baking soda is a basic i.e. it’s alkaline. So if you come upon a recipe that uses baking soda, often that recipe will have an acidic element as well, such as vinegar, lemon juice, buttermilk, or yogurt. When the two substances come in contact, bubbles of carbon dioxide are formed, creating the leavening in your dough or batter. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and a dry acid, such as cream of tartar, and maybe some corn-starch to help keep the two separate and dry. Most baking powders on the market are “double