Baking soda, baking powder - what's the difference? Both are white powders, odorless and nearly indistinguishable. Yet both help your baked goods to rise. Without them (or another leavener like yeast or beaten egg whites), all of our breads and cakes would be very flat and dense. In this portion of the lab, you will devise and conduct a simple experiment to find out the difference between baking soda and baking powder in terms of their chemical make-up, chemical reaction and application.