Our Hypothesis is the rise of the cupcake while baking is directly related to the amount of baking powder in the cupcake.  Specifically. we believe:

1. 1) In cupcakes where double the amount of baking powder is used, the cupcakes will rise the most;
2. 2) In cupcakes where the typical amount of baking powder is used (1/2 a teaspoon for 8 cupcakes), the cupcakes will rise normally; and
3. 3) In cupcakes where no baking powder is used, the cupcakes will not rise at all.

What is baking powder? Baking powder is a mix of baking soda and other ingredients. Some specific ingredients include cornstarch ,monocalcium ,phosphate ,sodium and bicarbonate.

What does baking powder do in your baking? what we found out from our research is the little flakes of tiny patches of baking soda expand with heat and make tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas.These bubbles get trapped in the cupcake while it bakes causing the cupcake to be light and fluffy.Therfour when we put double the baking soda in one it makes sense that it caused the baking powder to form more bubbles making it more light and fluffy.This also means that when we didn't put any in, there was no bubbles to make the cupcakes rise.Ifyou cut open a cupcake,cake, bread etc you would find pockets of air and theses are the bobbles of carbon dioxide that the baking powder makes.

When was baking powder invented and why? Did you know baking powder is 175 years old?Baking powder was invented in the 1850s by a Harvard chemist named Eben Norton Horsfordsome.Baking powder was is used to help rise things like cakes ,cupcakes and bread.

Fun fact People used natural yeast in bread and cupcakes but also they put baking Soda mixed with different acids. They didn’t have baking powder back then because it was not invented.Baking Soda was invented in 1850s.back then when you used respites with yeast in it you would have to wait hours and hours for the dough to rise.Then once baking Soda was created they had a faster and more efficient way of baking.

Some of our controlled variables include the baking tin, the oven, the temperature of the oven, the bake time, and all of the ingredients except the baking powder. Our one manipulated variable is the amount of baking powder used. In one batch we used double the amount of baking powder typically used, in the second we used the normal amount of baking powder typically used (1/2 a teaspoon), and in the last we used no baking powder.

We first made a double batch of the cupcake batter but we left out the baking powder and then added an equal amount of batter into three bowls and then we added no baking powder to one then we added the right amount of baking powder in the second one. In the third bowl we did add double the baking powder.  As air and fluffiness in the wet dough is an important part of the recipe, we did not want to over handle the batter. As a result, we focused on equal sized portions and focused on having a close but not exact weight.

Our observations are that the cupcakes that had baking powder rose and the cupcakes that did not have baking powder did not rise. The cupcakes with a normal amount of baking powder rose as expected and they tasted great.  To our surprise, the cupcakes that had double the baking powder rose about the same height as the control batch but had a grainy taste.

Our conclusion is that the effect of baking powder on cupcakes is that the baking powder flacks expand and forms little bubbles of carbon dioxide inside the cupcake while baking.  These bubbles make the the cupcake light and airy causing it to rise.  Therefore if you don’t add baking powder to the cupcake there will be no bubbles causing it not to rise.  In addition, we found that when baking if you add extra baking powder, it does not necessarily increase the size of the cupcakes, it only ruins the taste!

If I were to do this experiment again, I would put the normal amount of baking powder in. I would do this, because when you put double the amount of baking powder in it tasted grainy, but when we put the normal amount, the graininess would go away .The more baking powder also caused it torise more. since it rises more, it tasted more fluffy and better. when we put no baking powder in it would taste flat and not fluffy enough.

One source of error was amount of batter in each cupcake we measured the batter using the same scoop but for batch with double baking powder we ran short of batter and the last few cupcakes had less.Another source of error we had was when we divided the batter into three batches we used a measuring cup and not exact weight.

Citations

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/colorful-history-of-baking-powder-and-its-unlikely-inventor/

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/04/bubble-bubble-without-toil-or-trouble/

I would like to acknowledge Ms Arcuri and the parents who guided us along the way.Thank you specifically to my mom and dad for helping me with the format of my poster board.