Question

A white powder is added while baking bread and cakes to them soft and fluffy. What is the name of the powder? What are the functions of each ingredient?

Answer 1

Baking soda $\left({\mathrm{NaHCO}}_3\right)$ releases carbon dioxide gas $\left({\mathrm{CO}}_2\right)$ upon heating. The bubbles of the gas make the bread and cakes fluffy.

Reaction involved:

$\underset{(\mathrm{Sodium}\mathrm{bicarbonate})}{2{\mathrm{NaHCO}}_3\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}\stackrel{\left(\mathrm{heat}\right)}{\to }\underset{(\mathrm{sodium}\mathrm{carbonate})}{{\mathrm{Na}}_2{\mathrm{CO}}_3\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{dioxide}}{{\mathrm{CO}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\left(\mathrm{Water}\right)}{{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)}$

This sodium carbonate imparts a bitter taste to the cake and bread.

Tartaric acid $\left({\mathrm{C}}_4{\mathrm{H}}_6{\mathrm{O}}_6\right)$ reacts with sodium carbonate and neutralizes the bitter taste.

Therefore, a powder added while baking bread and cakes to make them fluffy and soft is baking powder.