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Dessert

Ice Cream Icing for White Cake

A sweet icing made from powdered sugar, vanilla, egg whites, and citric acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Ice Cream Icing for White Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the powdered sugar in a saucepan until it forms a thick syrup.

  2. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.

Finish the icing

  1. Stir in the vanilla extract.

  2. Once cool, fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Add the citric acid and mix until well combined.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Powdered sugar
Dissolves into a thick syrup that gives the icing its sweetness and body.
Egg whites
Whipped into the syrup to add lightness and a smoother, airier texture.
Citric acid
Adds a tart edge that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Vanilla extract
Adds the aroma and flavor that define a white cake icing.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites once the syrup has cooled. If the syrup is still very hot, it can cook the egg whites and cause them to scramble or lose their light texture, so the syrup should cool slightly first.

“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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