Homemade baking powder

I just realized that many cooks do not know when a recipe needs baking POWDER or when it needs baking SODA to leaven a product.

Baking SODA can only be used in a recipe where there is an acid ingredient to work with it. So if your recipe calls for lemon juice, buttermilk, vinegar or other "acid" food, baking SODA will work to leaven it. For the soda to bubble, it needs an acid. No bubbles, no raising of the product.

If your recipe does NOT have anything "acid" in it, you HAVE to use baking POWDER. (unless you're using whipped egg whites folded into the batter), but then you wouldn't need anything else for leavening. Baking POWDER has both baking soda AND Cream of Tartar in it. The soda is a base, the Tartar an acid. Get them together and they foam. (Think baking soda and vinegar volcanoes from school.)

Homemade baking powder:
2 Tbs Baking SODA
1 Tbs Cream of Tartar
1 Tbs Corn Starch
Mix together and use as if it were commercial - 1 tsp for each tsp called for in recipe.
This one can sit on a shelf for a while.

Or
1/4 tsp Baking SODA
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
Mix together and use right away.
Makes enough to equal 1 tsp commercial baking powder. (If you need 2 tsps, just double the recipe.)