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Dessert

Directions for Frosting

A frosting made from beaten egg whites, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,841 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Directions for Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar while beating until smooth, about 30 minutes.

  3. Add your choice of flavoring.

  4. When the cake is baked, beat the egg whites again and stir in the sugar and cornstarch.

Frost the cake

  1. Invert a clean tin milk pan onto a paper, place the cake on it, and apply the frosting.

  2. Ensure the frosting is smooth and adheres firmly to the cake.

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 + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + pineappletop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

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

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 stiff foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the whipped whites to add sweetness and body, making the frosting smooth.
Cornstarch
Stabilizes the whipped foam and helps the frosting hold its shape and stay smooth.

The step that matters

Gradually add the powdered sugar while beating. Adding sugar slowly lets it dissolve fully into the foam. Dumping it in at once can deflate the whites and leave grainy frosting.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Pineapplethe 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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