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Dessert

Directions for Frosting

A frosting made from egg white, powdered sugar, and optional flavoring, with a boiled sugar variant.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Directions for Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Break the egg into a flat dish and beat with a fork until stiff.

  2. Add the sugar and flavoring, or mix sugar with the egg before beating.

  3. Ensure everything is thoroughly beaten before frosting the cake.

Prepare the cake

  1. If the cake is rough or brown, dust with flour and rub off loose particles.

Frost and finish

  1. Spread the frosting smoothly with a knife and let it set in a warm place without browning.

  2. If the frosting is too stiff, dip the knife in cold water to spread it easily.

  3. If the frosting dries too quickly, add a drop or two of hot water.

  4. Add any decorations like raisins, nuts, or candies while the icing is still moist.

Make boiled frosting (optional)

  1. For boiled frosting, cover 1 cup of sugar with water and boil without stirring until it ropes.

  2. Beat the egg white, then stir in the boiled sugar and continue stirring until cool.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg white
Beaten until stiff, it traps air and gives the frosting its light, creamy structure.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the beaten egg white to add sweetness and body to the frosting.
Sugar
In boiled frosting, cooked to a rope stage so it sets into a glossy, firm coating.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar until it ropes. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration before it meets the egg white. Too little cooking leaves a runny frosting that will not set, and too much makes it hard and grainy.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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