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Dessert

Mocha Frosting

A butter-based frosting flavored with confectioners' sugar and strong black coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mocha Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl until smooth.

  2. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until well combined.

  3. Add strong black coffee drop by drop, mixing until the desired flavor is achieved.

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 + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + coffeetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides fat and a smooth, creamy body that carries the sugar and coffee flavor.
Confectioners' sugar
Sweetens the frosting and, dissolved into the fat, thickens it into a spreadable texture.
Strong black coffee
Adds the coffee flavor and a little liquid that loosens the frosting as it is mixed in.

The step that matters

Add the coffee drop by drop. Liquid added too quickly can make the butter and sugar mixture separate or turn thin and runny. Adding it slowly lets the frosting absorb the liquid and stay smooth and spreadable.

“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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