My+Baking+Experiment

     

From my research I knew that baking powder and baking soda ARE NOT interchangeable. But, for my experiment I decided to see what would happen if I did change them.

 I made an All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake. I got the recipe from Rachel Levy Beranbaum's book, __The Cake Bible__. For my first two cakes I made the cakes the right way. The batter ended up being really thick, but that was normal. I baked the cakes for a half an hour. When I stuck a toothpick in to check the cakes, it came out clean. I knew then that the cakes were done. The cakes turned out just how I thought they would.  Then I made two cakes the wrong way. Instead of using baking powder like the recipe called for, I used baking soda. I baked the cakes just like I did the first time, for a half an hour. When I put the toothpick in it came out with stuff on it. I then took the cakes out of the oven. The results surprised me. the cakes actually rose, I didn't expect them to, I thought they were going to be flat. They actually rose more than the cakes I made the right way!! The cakes also didn't cook all the way through. I know that because of the way the toothpick came out. After a while one of the cakes started to deflate. It made a dip in the middle of it.

My first picture is of a cake made the wrong way. The second picture is of a cake made the right way.