phragmentation

Looking for clues as to what I can substitute for baking soda, which I can’t seem to find here in Italy, and what baking ammonia is, which I did find… and i found this interesting site:
O Chef… Answers to Life’s vexing cooking questions…
But here is the real answer I was looking for:
The problem with ammonium carbonate is the ammonia that it releases during baking. It reacts with glucose and fructose in the dough to form unusual molecules that in turn react very efficiently with asparagine to form acrylamide. The Swiss gingerbread dough is made with glucose, fructose, and honey; molasses also contains a lot of glucose and fructose. Ordinary table sugar, sucrose, is not vulnerable to attack by ammonia.
And there’s just sugar in this cake!