Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is Amelie Bass and I am your host for episode #18 called Cupcake Chemistry. Today I will be discussing how the ingredients of a cupcake form the magical dessert we all know and love.

Cupcakes: the delicious dessert baked for a celebration or eaten as a late-night snack. But like what goes into the cupcake to give it a moist and fluffy cake?

I love baking a variety of treats but cupcakes are always a classic.

Ok, let’s start with the key ingredients of any good cupcake:

• Flour
• Butter
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• Leaveners, like baking powder and baking soda
• Dairy, like sour cream and milk
• And of course a good frosting and decorations

In this episode we will be discussing the chemistry behind 2 of these ingredients, starting with….

Leaveners (like the thing that gives the cupcake a light fluffy texture) are probably the most important ingredient in a cupcake. It is used to help the cupcake rise, giving it a light and fluffy texture.

So what is a leavener, like what is the ingredient that is doing the rising. Baking soda and baking powder are what recipes will commonly call for.

Now some will call for both of these leaveners. But wait, why is that, why do I need 2? Hold onto that idea later and we will come back to it later. Let's first analyze what these two substances even are.

Baking soda

• Sodium bicarbonate is a base, used to neutralize any acidic components (chocolate or citrus) in the batter
• When the cupcakes are baked, the baking soda or NaHCO3 in the batter turns into sodium carbonate, water, and carbon dioxide
• The carbon dioxide which is released in bubbles, causing the batter to rise.

Baking powder

• A dry mixture that contains baking soda, acid salts, and cornstarch
• The baking soda reacts with the acid salts in the powder only when the mixture is moistened
• The...