

Human: I have a general question. I was wondering if baking powder and baking soda the same thing?

Assistant: 
Yes! That’s a great question.  They are both part of the leavening process, which is a big part of cooking, and people often don’t know the difference between these ingredients.  You can think of leavening as “food that puffs up” or “expands as it cooks”.  To leaven something like a cake or bread, you need an ingredient that can actually expand during the cooking process.  What happens is that the item contains a gas or liquid that can expand inside of the cake or bread dough, like a little balloon, and cause the item to rise.  
They are the same thing.  The US military trademarked and patented “baking powder” in 1941.  But you might have noticed, of late, that baking powder has been replaced by a chemical called “sodium bicarbonate”.