Recipes with baking soda

Gingerbread bears: classic rolled and cut gingerbread cookies with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, molasses, and a lemon zest brightener. Chill the dough, roll thin, decorate as bears for the holidays.

Four-layer Black Forest torte with thin unsweetened chocolate cake layers alternating between chocolate filling and cream filling. Unfrosted sides show off the elegant layers.

An Italian-leaning skillet cornbread loaded with mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, and creamed corn. Heartier than classic Southern cornbread, almost a meal on its own.

Fudgy chocolate brownie cookies topped with pastel-colored frosting and sugar crystals. Loaded with semisweet chocolate chips and finished with rainbow icing for a festive, party-ready treat.

Chocolate bar nut cake melts ten ounces of chocolate bars into a buttermilk batter loaded with two and a half cups of chopped nuts and chocolate syrup. Baked low and slow in a tube pan for 90 minutes. A dense, fudgy Bundt-style chocolate cake.

Buttermilk chocolate chip pancakes deliver fluffy tangy pancakes with chocolate chips sprinkled on the first side as they cook. Quick lemon-juice buttermilk shortcut included.

Steamed brown bread with whole wheat flour, cornmeal, buttermilk, molasses, and raisins. A classic New England bread steamed in a coffee can, made to pair with baked beans.

Low-sugar blender brownies made with applesauce instead of butter and sugar substitute for a lighter treat. Chewy, fudgy, and ready in under 30 minutes.

Buttermilk pancakes studded with plump dried cherries and crunchy macadamia nuts, finished with whipped cream. A Hawaiian-style brunch stack with sweet-tart, buttery flavor in every bite.

Chocolate chip snack cake with cream cheese pockets: a no-egg, no-butter chocolate cake topped with dollops of sweetened cream cheese, chocolate chips, and walnuts. The retro depression-era "crazy cake" upgraded.

New England scones with bright orange zest, sweet currants, and whole wheat flour, finished with a powdered-sugar icing drizzle. Yankee-style scones with bakery-bright flavor.

Spumoni slice-and-bake cookies with three layered doughs: cherry pink, chocolate, and pistachio green with rum flavoring. A colorful Italian-inspired Christmas cookie.

Traditional Chinese almond cookies with butter and shortening get an egg wash for glossy shine. Dough chills 2 hours, then slices into rounds topped with whole almonds.

Jack-o-lantern cookie pops made with spiced molasses dough cut into pumpkin shapes on lollipop sticks, decorated with tinted ornamental frosting. A fun Halloween baking project for kids.

Cranapple snack bars with fresh cranberries, sliced apples, walnuts, and silken tofu in a honey-sweetened cinnamon batter. A naturally sweetened fruit bar with no refined sugar.

Chocolate snowy cake with a fluffy whipped cream filling between a cocoa sheet cake and a poured chocolate frosting. An eggless cake base with vinegar for lift.