Baking soda aftertaste

[toodlepipsky]

Hello fellow vegans!

I've got a problem that keeps coming up when I'm baking. It doesn't matter if I follow recipies religiously or in my own invented stuff, I'll often get my baked goods with a clear aftertaste of baking soda.
I'll give you an example: this recipe the dough not only turned out liquidy and it hardly rose at all (but that's beside

Comments

[trickseybird]

hmm, list ingredients?

[toodlepipsky]

Love the icon :)

[br0ken_dolly]

I agree. It's weird there's no BP in a cake recipe, and I've converted VCTOTW recipes to cakes (12 cupcakes = 1 layer in an 8" or 9" round or square pan) many times with great success.

I think there may be some in the cake tags too :)

[bizwac]

One of the easiest cakes I make just calls for baking soda and no baking powder, and it is delish.

[br0ken_dolly]

If memory serves doesn't that have stuffs (acid) to balance out the soda taste, and there's not a whole ton of it?

It's that old incidentally-vegan vintage chocolate cake recipe, right? It's the only soda cake I've really liked, now that I think about it:

Vintage Chocolate Cake

3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
2 c. water
2/3 c. cocoa (unsweetened)
1 c. oil
2 Tbsp. distilled white vinegar
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix till blended. Pour into greased, floured 9”x13” pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

(stolen from the internets somewhere in my recipe files)

Might be able to black-forest-ify it.

[vonvoncake]

I think that the chocolate cake recipe in Veganomicon is the best I've eaten, vegan or standard. She also has a recipe on Post Punk Kitchen for chocolate cupcakes that you could make in a cake pan. And it's REALLY easy.

My other suggestion is to use non-aluminum baking powder in your baking. I get mine at our co-op and it makes all the difference in the taste of things like pancakes and baking powder biscuits.

[toodlepipsky]

I didn't know there was aluminum in baking powder @__@ got to start checking these things...

[vonvoncake]

I didn't either until I saw non-aluminum baking powder at the store. I buy Rumford in the black/red can, but I don't know how available it is nationally or outside of the US. I'm telling you, though, it made such a difference in my pancakes. I always thought my pancakes tasted a little off, a little bitter. And then I tried this and they suddenly lost that bitter aftertaste.

[toodlepipsky]

I will definitely keep my eyes peeled now, thanks for the heads up!

[bizwac]

Having a look at the recipe you linked to, that seems like way too much baking soda for the amount of flour you're using. I'd use half a tsp and see how that goes.

This is the cake recipe I used when making a black forest cake. it's my go-to chocolate cake recipe.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix dry ingredients first, then add wet and stir until lumps dissappear. Pour into 9x13'' pan. Bake 35-40 minutes.

I often halve it too, but it depends on how big a cake you want.

[toodlepipsky]

I will definitely try this recipe, the proportions look much more sensible here.
Thank you!!

[ready2please]

That recipe seems off. 1-1/2 cups liquid (water and oil) for 1-3/4 cups of dry (flour, sugar, cocoa powder).

No wonder it was flat and didn't rise.

I'd find another recipe. Looks like the other commenters linked you, and also gave you recipes.

I would look for recipes that have a 2:1 ratio of dry to wet. Good luck.

[toodlepipsky]

It did look very off to me, too. I used to work in a vegan restaurant spending about 80% of my time baking so I sort of got an eye for how dough aught to look like (though I've had suprises once in a while) but even there, we'd sometimes get that aftertaste so I just thought it was a hazard one aught to consider in advance when baking vegan.