baking powder
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Baking powder is a dry chemical mixture that produces gas bubbles when mixed with wet ingredients, causing baked goods like cakes and muffins to rise and become fluffy. It's a convenient leavening agent that home bakers use to achieve the light, airy texture that would otherwise require more time or effort to develop.
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U.S. consumer-packaged baking powder. Rumford baking powder contains monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, and cornstarch. Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a desiccant such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods. It works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid–base reaction, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture.
In 1843, the first single-acting baking powder (meaning that it releases all of its carbon dioxide as soon as it is dampened) was developed by pharmacist Alfred Bird in England. In 1856, Eben Norton Horsford, the Rumford Professor at Harvard University, received an American patent, for monocalcium phosphate, for baking powder. In the 1860s, Eben Norton Horsford developed the first double-acting baking powder, which releases some carbon dioxide when dampened and later releases more of the gas when heated by baking.