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Dessert

Cocoanut Icing

A sweet icing made from egg whites, powdered sugar, and shredded coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓

Cocoanut Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add the powdered sugar and beat until well combined.

  3. Mix half of the icing with the shredded coconut.

Assemble the cake

  1. Spread the coconut icing between the layers of the cake.

  2. Spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake.

  3. Sprinkle shredded coconut thickly on the top and sides.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + coconuttop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Egg + coconuttop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the icing and stiffens the whipped whites so they hold their shape.
Shredded coconut
Adds chewy texture and coconut flavor to the icing and topping.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff.. Egg whites must be whipped until they form stiff peaks, because the air trapped in the foam gives the icing its volume. Under-beaten whites stay runny and spread flat, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the coconut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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