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Dessert

Marsh Mallow Icing for Cake

A sweet icing made from melted marshmallows, sugar syrup, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and strawberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,060 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Marsh Mallow Icing for Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put six strawberry marshmallows in a double boiler with a tablespoon of hot water and stir until melted.

  2. Boil one cup of sugar and quarter cup of water until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water.

  3. Pour the hot syrup gradually into the marshmallow mixture, then into the beaten whites of two eggs.

  4. Beat until cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

176Calories
7 gProtein
6 gFat
25 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Strawberry1 cup (152g)49
Waternot in our table0
Marshmallownot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Landmarks Club. 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. See the original page.

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 + strawberrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,060 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Strawberry + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,509 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Two eggs
Whites beaten to a foam give the icing its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Boiled into a syrup, it gives the icing its sweetness and body.
Strawberry marshmallows
Melted into the mixture, they add sweetness, flavour and a smooth, soft texture.

The step that matters

Pour the hot syrup gradually. Adding the hot syrup slowly, while beating, keeps the egg whites from scrambling and lets the mixture cool and thicken evenly into a stable icing.

Swap the strawberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Strawberrythe original

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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