How much baking soda/baking powder?

Hey everyone! I am a vegan baker and I bake and cook a lot. I have a question on how to determine how much baking soda/ baking powder to use in a cake or in anything? Is there like a baking formula? I would love to create my own recipes but don't know where to start? Is determing baking soda/ baking powder just trial and error?How much baking soda/baking powder?
While making a cake, I would say put in 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Baking soda and baking powder are two different things:


Baking soda is basic and will yield a bitter taste unless countered by the acidity of another ingredient, such as buttermilk. Baking powder contains both an acid and a base and has an overall neutral effect in terms of taste. Recipes that call for baking powder often call for other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk. Baking powder is more common in cakes and biscuits.





Not a lot of recipe's ever call for more than 1 teaspoon. Some recipes call for half and half, it just depends.





What I would do is go on google and search for cake recipes. Maybe even specify vegan cake recipes. Just to get general ideas, but Creating your own recipes is sort of a thing of the past since everything has really already been made.How much baking soda/baking powder?
Well first, you need to know when to use which. Baking soda requires an acid to produce the gases that cause rising. So the recipe would need to include buttermilk, sour milk, lemon juice, or something along those lines. Baking powder is baking soda with cream of tartar, so it already has an acid. Double acting baking powder produces gasses twice..once when combined with liquid, and once when introduced to heat.





Using your example of a cake, most scratch recipes will need 2 tsp of baking powder. Some require 1 1/2 tsp each of baking powder and baking soda. The type of cocoa you use will effect the type of leavening you use as well. Regular cocoa will work with baking soda, but Dutched cocoa, which is alkalized, needs either baking powder or a mixture of both.





Your best bet is to start with established recipes until you learn the basics, then begin making changes until you're confident enough to create a recipe of your own.
If you're baking something that contains an acid (wine, juice, vinegar, etc), use baking soda (about 1 tsp. per 12 servings). If you're baking something with no acid, use 1.5 tsp baking powder, or 1 tsp. baking powder and either a) 2 tsp. white wine vinegar, or b) 1 tsp. cream of tartar per 12 servings. (Double for a recipe that yields 24 servings).





It's kind of trial and error, because the heaviness of the ingredients plays a big factor. The reason for using baking soda at all is that, when combined with an acid, it produces gas (for the same effect as yeast, which produces carbon dioxide to leaven the bread). Using baking soda in a recipe with no acid will produce a chewy cracker, essentially, because the gas-producing chemical reaction will not occur. Baking powder is just baking soda and cream of tartar, premixed.





~These measurements are approximate, and are what I use when I bake. They are by no means right for every recipe.
to make self raising flour from plain flour, use 1/2tsp bicarb soda %26amp; 1tsp baking powder to every kilogram of flour used
when you cut cocain, you usually do a half and half measurement to double your quantity...at least that's what I heard on tv