Cooking and Science: The Chemistry of Baking Soda #gluenglitter #CBIAS

We had the opportunity to participate in the #CBIAS #elmerscienceready Science project this week. I was really excited to do this science project! I love to cook, and I’m always interested in finding out the chemistry that goes into making my favorite baking goods, so we decided to ask the question: What are the main differences between baking powder and baking soda and how do they work. We based our project on the Chemistry of Baking project at Science Buddies.

To complete the project we needed an Elmer’s Tri-Fold Poster Board, and some heavy duty X-TREME glue to hold our information in place.

We headed off to Walmart to find the Tri-Fold Poster Board and the X-TREME glue. I was afraid I would have a hard time finding the items I needed. But it was super easy! They were both in the craft section at Walmart and easy to spot. The Tri-Fold Display Boards were with the poster boards.

Here’s the glue section of the craft aisle. I love the craft aisle,  but I never knew Elmer’s had so many different kinds of glue.  Of course then I was sidetracked by some of the other fun Elmer’s craft supplies they had hanging there beside the glue.

We also headed to the baking aisle to purchase some of the baking items we would need. That’s another aisle I can get lost in! I really enjoy baking, so I always put more in my cart than is on my list. We picked up some baking soda, and baking powder, along with cake flour while we were there.

Then it was back home to do some baking. Our hypothesis was that the baking powder did make a difference, and that the cupcakes would not rise without it. We made 4 different batches of cupcakes. One with the regular amount of 2 teaspoons of baking powder, one was doubled with 4 teaspoons of baking powder, one had no baking powder, and the final one had baking soda instead of powder.

So I made up a recipe based on my favorite cupcakes, and divided the recipe into fourths. Each batch of cupcakes had:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• ½ cup milk
• ¼ cup butter
• some variation on baking powder or baking soda (listed below)

I preheated the oven to 350`F, then mixed the baking soda or powder in with the flour. I made a well in the center and added the sugar, egg, milk and butter. Then mixed it all lightly with the mixer before filling 6 cupcake wrappers about 2/3 of the way full. Then I baked them all for 20 minutes.  Here are the results, from left to right in both photos are 2 teaspoons baking powder, 4 teaspoons baking powder, baking soda, and no baking powder.

Here’s the texture:

Then we had a blast putting together our poster with our experiment conclusions using the Tri Fold Poster board, the XTREME glue and some Elmer’s Project Popperz letters we had around the house. The Project Popperz are bright, so I found some  scrapbook paper colors to coordinate and some other die cut letters to finish off our project and give it a sharp look.

We printed out our hypothesis, material list, conclusions, and data, cut it all apart, and glued it together.

And presented our findings. What do you think? My son and I had fun putting the presentation together, and we both learned something in the process.

Here’s what we found:

• 2 teaspoons of baking powder (the standard ratio found in most baked goods)~ Cupcakes rose like normal and tasted good.
• 4 teaspoons of baking powder~ The cupcakes rose extra tall, were not as sweet, and had a slight after taste.
• No baking powder~ The cupcakes did not rise and were very dense, but had good flavor. They were just lacking in texture.
• 2 teaspoons baking soda~ The cupcakes rose nicely, but they burned easily and had a bitter aftertaste.

Our conclusion was that the right amount of baking powder was an important part of baking, and that cupcakes do require baking powder to rise and get the correct texture. We also learned that baking soda will make cupcakes rise, but if you use it without adding something acidic they will make your cupcakes have a bad flavor.

We had a blast putting together this science project! My son had a great time helping me. His favorite part was the taste testing, until he tried the baking soda cupcakes! He had a good time eating some of the leftovers from the experiment.

You can see more photos from the project on Google + here: Elmer’s Science Ready Cooking and Science

This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #elmersscienceready #collectivebias #CBias