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Dessert

Frosting for Cake

A simple frosting made from powdered sugar, lemon juice, and egg white.

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 ↓

Frosting for Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Beat the egg white thoroughly.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar, one teaspoon at a time.

  3. Mix in the lemon juice.

Spread and set

  1. Spread the frosting on a warm cake using a broad-bladed knife dipped in cold water.

  2. Place the cake in a cool area to harden.

  3. If using a rich cake, dust with flour and brush off excess with a napkin.

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 white
Whipped into foam, it traps air and gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the whipped egg white to add sweetness and body, stiffening the frosting.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.

The step that matters

Gradually add the powdered sugar, one teaspoon at a time. Adding sugar slowly lets it dissolve fully into the egg white foam. Dumping it in at once can deflate the foam and leave a grainy, runny frosting.

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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