Name: Icing Cakes
Ingredients: fine powdered sugar; water; flavoring (optional); confectionery coloring (optional); white of egg (for White-of-Egg Icing); grated chocolate (for Chocolate Icing)

Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Icing Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Mix fine powdered sugar with water and flavoring to create a smooth icing.
Spread the icing over the cake for a semi-transparent finish.
For White-of-Egg Icing, beat powdered sugar with white of egg for about 15 minutes until firm and white.
Thin part of the icing with more white of egg for a smooth coating.
For Chocolate Icing, mix grated chocolate into boiling sugar and apply.

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.

Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + chocolatetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).