Name: Soft Icing
Ingredients: ½ pound finely pulverized, sifted sugar; 1 tablespoon boiling water; 1 tablespoon fruit juice

Soft Icing

Ingredients

½ pound finely pulverized, sifted sugar
1 tablespoon boiling water
1 tablespoon fruit juice

Directions

Mix the sugar with boiling water and fruit juice.
Color the icing as desired.
Spread the icing on the warm cake, about ⅛ inch thick.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Provides sweetness and forms the body of the icing as it dissolves into a smooth paste.
Boiling water: Dissolves the sugar and thins the icing to a spreadable, soft consistency.
Fruit juice: Adds flavor and acidity while further thinning the icing.

The step that matters

Spread the icing on the warm cake. Spreading onto a warm cake lets the icing soften slightly and spread evenly, while a cold cake can cause it to stiffen and drag. Keeping the layer near ⅛ inch thick gives a soft coating without it running off the edges.

“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.