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 ↓
Cool Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the frosting
Beat the egg white until stiff.
Gradually add the powdered sugar and continue to beat until well combined.
Spread and bake
Spread the frosting on the cake.
Place the cake in a 300°F (150°C) oven to harden.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the frosting and stiffens the whipped egg white as it dissolves into it.
The step that matters
Gradually add the powdered sugar while beating. Adding the sugar slowly lets it dissolve into the whipped egg white without deflating the foam. Dumping it in at once can collapse the structure and leave a dense, grainy frosting.
“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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