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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A simple chocolate frosting made with sugar, cream, chocolate, salt, and optional cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cream, and salt.

  2. Heat over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Add the scraped chocolate and continue to stir until melted.

  4. If desired, add a pinch of cinnamon and cook for a few more minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before using.

Finish

  1. Spread on your cake.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Chocolate + cinnamontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it dissolves, body to the frosting.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the frosting a smooth, rich texture.
Chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and fat that set the frosting as it cools.

The step that matters

Remove from heat and let cool slightly before using. Chocolate and cream mixtures thicken as they cool. Spreading while still very hot can make the frosting runny and cause it to slide off the cake, while waiting until it has cooled a little helps it hold and spread smoothly.

“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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