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Dessert

Clear Icing, for Cake

A clear icing made from sugar, lemon juice, and egg whites, poured over cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Clear Icing, for Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the icing

  1. In a bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and the whites of 2 eggs.

  2. Mix until smooth and pour over the cake.

  3. Whip the egg whites in a cool, clean dish, gradually adding sugar until fully incorporated.

  4. Beat until the icing is smooth and firm; add more sugar if necessary.

Finish the cake

  1. If the cake is not hot enough to dry the icing, place it in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  2. To spread, use a broad-bladed knife dipped in cold water.

  3. For a firmer icing, use 1 pound of powdered sugar for every 4 egg whites.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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 sets into a light, clear, glossy icing structure.
Sugar
Dissolves into the egg whites, adding sweetness and helping the icing set firm.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites in a cool, clean dish. Any trace of fat or yolk prevents egg whites from whipping to full volume, and sugar must be added gradually so the foam stays stable and the icing sets smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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