Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Place the egg whites in a shallow dish.
Sprinkle part of the sugar over the egg whites and beat for 30 minutes.
Gradually add the remaining sugar while continuing to beat.
Flavor with lemon juice or other flavorings as desired.
For colored icing, add strawberry juice or cranberry syrup.
To make yellow icing, squeeze lemon juice and grated rind into the mixture.
Frost and set
Spread the icing on a well-floured and wiped cake using a large knife dipped in cold water.
Set the frosted cake in a cool, dry place or a moderate 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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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Strawberry + cranberrytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together60 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
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Lemon + cranberrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together210 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + strawberrytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,206 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
- Fine white sugar
- Dissolves into the whipped whites and sets firm as the icing dries, giving sweetness and a crisp finish.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps stabilize the foam.
The step that matters
Beating the sugar into the egg whites. Sugar must be added gradually while beating so it dissolves fully into the foam. Adding it all at once can leave grainy icing and a collapsed, weepy foam that will not harden smoothly.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, strawberry, cranberry, syrup):
- Vanillafits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, strawberry, cranberry, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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