The best baking powder substitute is 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda in the UK) plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar for every 1 teaspoon of baking powder — whisk it through the dry ingredients and get it into the oven straight away. No cream of tartar? Use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar, or swap 120 ml (4 fl oz) of the recipe's liquid for buttermilk. Baking soda on its own is not a substitute: it needs an acid to make bubbles, and baking powder already has one built in.</answer> <parameter name="intro">Get this one thing straight before you touch the mixing bowl: baking soda needs an acid, baking powder brought its own. Everything below follows from that. The ratios are exact, and where a swap changes the crumb or the colour I have said so plainly, rather than let you find out at the oven door.
| Recipe calls for | Substitute | Exact amount | Best in | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tsp baking powder | Baking soda plus cream of tartar | 1/4 tsp baking soda (bicarb) plus 1/2 tsp cream of tartar | Anything. The closest match there is. | Single-acting, so mix it in last and bake within minutes |
| 1 tsp baking powder | Baking soda plus lemon juice or white vinegar | 1/4 tsp baking soda plus 1/2 tsp juice or vinegar | Pancakes, muffins, quick breads | Fizzes on contact. Stir in at the end and bake at once. |
| 1 tsp baking powder | Baking soda plus buttermilk | 1/4 tsp baking soda plus 120 ml (4 fl oz) buttermilk | Scones, biscuits, soda bread | Take 120 ml out of the recipe's other liquid to make room |
| 1 tsp baking powder | Baking soda plus plain yoghurt | 1/4 tsp baking soda plus 120 ml (4 fl oz) yoghurt | Cakes, muffins, loaf cakes | Same swap for 120 ml of liquid. Loosen with milk if it stiffens. |
| 1 tsp baking powder | Baking soda plus molasses (black treacle) | 1/4 tsp baking soda plus 60 ml (2 fl oz) molasses | Gingerbread, sticky dark cakes | Cut other liquid by 60 ml. Darkens the colour and the flavour. |
| 1 tsp baking powder | Self-raising flour | Use self-raising in place of the plain flour and add no baking powder | Scones, sponges, pancakes | Only if you swap the whole flour weight. Never do both. |
| 1 tsp baking powder | Whisked egg whites | Whisk the recipe's whites to soft peaks, fold in last | Pancakes, waffles, light sponge | Air, not chemistry. Stir the batter after and the lift is gone. |
| 1 tsp baking soda (bicarb) | Baking powder | 3 tsp (1 tbsp) baking powder | Muffins, quick breads, cookies at a push | Adds salt, and leaves the recipe's acid unneutralised: tangier, paler |
| 1 tsp baking soda | Potassium bicarbonate | 1 tsp, straight 1 for 1 | Low-salt baking | Faintly bitter. Add a pinch of salt to cover it. |
| 1 tsp baking soda | Baker's ammonia (ammonium bicarbonate) | 1 tsp, straight 1 for 1 | Thin crisp cookies, crackers, snaps only | The ammonia smell never bakes out of anything soft or thick |
Can You Use Baking Soda Instead of Baking Powder?
Not on its own, no. Baking soda — bicarbonate of soda, if you are shopping in a British supermarket — is pure alkali. It makes no bubbles whatsoever until it meets an acid. Baking powder is baking soda that already has a powdered acid blended into it, usually cream of tartar, along with a little cornflour to stop the two reacting in the tin. Baking powder is a complete raising agent in one spoonful. Baking soda is half of one.
Tip plain baking soda into a batter with nothing sour in it and very little happens: a feeble puff of rise, and the alkali that never reacted leaves behind a soapy, metallic taste and blotchy brown patches. So if you want to use baking soda in place of baking powder, you must bring the acid yourself. For every 1 teaspoon of baking powder the recipe asks for, use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, whisked through the flour. No cream of tartar in the house? 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar does the same work. And read your recipe first, because the acid may already be sitting there: buttermilk, yoghurt, soured cream, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, black treacle, brown sugar or natural cocoa all give the baking soda something to bite on.
Substitute for Baking Soda: What to Use When the Tin Is Empty
Going the other way is easier, because baking powder already contains baking soda. Use 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) of baking powder for every 1 teaspoon of baking soda. That sounds like a great deal of powder, and it is — baking soda is roughly three to four times stronger spoon for spoon, so you need the full triple to get the same lift.
It is a workable swap, not a perfect one, and two things change. First, all that extra powder carries extra salt and starch with it, so pull the recipe's salt back by a good pinch. Second — and this is the one that catches people out — baking soda is usually in a recipe to neutralise an acid as well as to raise. Take it out of a buttermilk cake or a molasses cookie and that acid stays put: the bake comes out tangier, paler and a little tighter, because it is the alkali that encourages browning and spread. Fine in muffins and quick breads. Very noticeable in a dark cookie that is meant to go crisp at the edges. And if the recipe wants more than about a teaspoon of baking soda, do not bother — three teaspoons of powder is one thing, six is a mouthful of chemistry.
How to Make Your Own Baking Powder
One part baking soda to two parts cream of tartar. For a single bake that is 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar for every 1 teaspoon of baking powder the recipe wants. Whisk it through the flour, never straight into the wet.
For a jar to keep, add cornflour to hold off the damp: 1 tablespoon baking soda, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar and 1 tablespoon cornflour, sieved together and kept somewhere dry and properly airtight. Use it spoon for spoon in place of shop-bought. One honest warning. Homemade baking powder is single-acting, and shop-bought is double-acting — the bought stuff gives one lot of bubbles when it gets wet and holds a second lot back for the heat of the oven, which is why a batter can sit on the worktop for ten minutes and still rise. Yours fires once, the moment it touches liquid. Mix it in at the last second and get the tin into a hot oven, or the rise will be over before the door shuts.
Baking Powder vs Baking Soda: The Difference Worth Knowing
First, the naming, because it trips up half the internet. Baking soda in America is bicarbonate of soda here — bicarb for short, or bread soda in an Irish recipe. Same white powder, same strength, different label. Baking powder is baking powder on both sides of the water. Cream of tartar is cream of tartar everywhere. The two tins look near enough identical and sit side by side on the shelf, but they are not interchangeable and they are nowhere near the same strength: baking soda is three to four times more powerful, teaspoon for teaspoon.
Here is the rule for reading any recipe. Baking soda needs an acid in the bowl with it. Baking powder does not, because it brought its own. That is why so many recipes list both: enough baking soda to neutralise the acid that is there for flavour, and baking powder on top to guarantee the lift. Swap one for the other without thinking about the acid and you get a flat, soapy, oddly grey thing — one of the few baking mistakes you can taste from the very first bite.
The Substitutes That Do Not Work
Yeast is not a substitute. It raises bread, and it wants an hour of warmth to do it — by then your scone dough has gone slack and sour. Sparkling water and club soda are not substitutes either: the bubbles are long gone before the batter is even warm, whatever the internet says. Cream of tartar on its own does nothing, because it is only the acid half and no gas comes out of it alone. And baking soda alone in a batter with nothing sour in it: covered above, and no.
Two more half-work, so long as you know what you are getting. Self-raising flour is a genuine swap — it is plain flour with roughly 2 teaspoons of baking powder per 150 g (5 oz) already blended in, so use it in place of the recipe's plain flour and leave the baking powder out altogether. Just never do both, or the cake will rise like a soufflé and fall like one. Whisked egg whites, folded in at the very end, will lift pancakes, waffles and a light sponge beautifully — but that is air, not chemistry, and it walks straight back out if you stir the batter afterwards. In a heavy fruit cake it does nothing at all.
Test It Before You Trust It
Half the substitutions people go hunting for are never needed. The baking powder is in the cupboard where it always was — it has simply died. It has a working life of six months to a year once opened, less in a steamy kitchen, and it fails quietly: no smell, no clumps, nothing to see.
Two tests, ten seconds each. For baking powder: 1 teaspoon into 60 ml (2 fl oz) of hot water straight from the kettle. It should froth up hard and immediately. A few lazy bubbles and it is finished — into the bin. For baking soda: 1/4 teaspoon into 2 teaspoons of vinegar or lemon juice. It should fizz like mad the instant they meet. Baking soda rarely goes off if it is kept dry and away from strong smells, but if it does nothing in the spoon it will do nothing in your cake either.
Questions we get asked
Can you use baking soda instead of baking powder?
Only if you add an acid to go with it. Baking soda needs one to make any bubbles at all, while baking powder already has one mixed in. For every 1 teaspoon of baking powder, use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, or 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar. Used on its own in a batter with nothing sour in it, baking soda will barely rise and will taste soapy.
How much baking powder equals 1 teaspoon of baking soda?
3 teaspoons, which is 1 tablespoon. Baking soda is about three to four times stronger, so you need the full triple to match the lift. Cut the recipe's salt back by a pinch to allow for the extra, and expect the bake to brown a little less than it should.
What can I substitute for baking soda in a recipe?
Baking powder at three times the amount is the usual answer, and the one most people reach for. Potassium bicarbonate works 1 for 1 if you are baking low-salt, though it can taste faintly bitter, so add a pinch of salt. Baker's ammonia is also 1 for 1 but only in thin, crisp things like crackers and ginger snaps — in anything soft or thick the ammonia smell stays put.
Can I use baking powder instead of baking soda in cookies?
You can, at 3 teaspoons of baking powder for every 1 teaspoon of baking soda, but cookies are exactly where you will notice it. Cookie recipes lean on baking soda to neutralise the acid in brown sugar or molasses and to encourage spread and browning. Swapped for powder, they come out puffier, paler and more cakey. Perfectly good biscuits, just not the ones you were expecting.
What can I use if I have no baking powder and no baking soda?
Swap the plain flour for self-raising flour — it already carries about 2 teaspoons of baking powder per 150 g (5 oz) — and leave the raising agent out entirely. Failing that, whisk the recipe's egg whites to soft peaks and fold them in at the end. That works for pancakes, waffles and light sponges, and is no use whatsoever in a heavy fruit cake.
Is bicarbonate of soda the same as baking soda?
Yes, identical. Same powder, same strength, different name: bicarbonate of soda in Britain and Ireland (bread soda in some Irish recipes), baking soda in America. Cream of tartar is called the same thing on both sides. The main difference on the shelf is that American baking soda tends to come in a big cardboard box and ours in a little tub.