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Directions for Frosting

A white icing made from beaten egg whites and powdered sugar, flavored and spread over a cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Directions for Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Beat whites of the eggs to a stiff froth.

  2. Add powdered sugar gradually, beating well all the time.

  3. Lastly add flavoring: rose, pineapple or almond for white or delicate cake, and lemon or vanilla for dark or fruit cake.

Prepare the cake

  1. If the cake is rough or brown when baked, dust it with a little flour.

  2. Rub off all loose particles with a cloth.

Frost and mark

  1. Put on the frosting, pouring it around the center of the cake.

  2. Smooth off as quickly as possible with a knife.

  3. If the frosting is rather stiff, dip the knife in cold water.

  4. Frost while the cake is still warm.

  5. When the frosting is almost cold, mark your cake in slices with a knife.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

582Calories
19 gProtein
6 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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 + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten to a stiff froth, they form the airy foam that gives the frosting its body.
Powdered sugar
Added gradually, it sweetens the frosting and stiffens the foam as it dissolves.
Corn starch
Adds a little body and helps keep the frosting smooth and stable.

The step that matters

Adding the powdered sugar gradually while beating. Adding sugar slowly while beating lets it dissolve into the foam. Dumping it in at once can collapse the whites and leave a grainy, unstable frosting.

“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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