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Dessert

Marsh Mallow Icing for Cake

A sweet icing made from marshmallows, sugar, water, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Strawberry and sugar 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

Make the marshmallow base

  1. In a double boiler, combine the marshmallows and hot water. Stir until melted.

Make the syrup

  1. In a separate pot, boil the sugar and ¼ cup water until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water.

Combine and beat

  1. Gradually pour the hot syrup into the melted marshmallow mixture.

  2. Add the syrup to the beaten egg whites and beat until cold.

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. Strawberry + sugartop 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Dissolved in water and boiled into a syrup that sweetens and firms the icing.
Strawberry marshmallows
Melted to form a sweet, smooth base that adds body and flavor to the icing.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the marshmallow mixture. The syrup must be added gradually while hot so it blends smoothly without cooking or seizing the melted marshmallow. Adding it to the egg whites and beating until cold lets the foam set into a stable, glossy 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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