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Dessert

Uncooked Frosting

A frosting made from powdered sugar, cocoa, vanilla, boiling water, and melted butter, mixed until smooth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Uncooked Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. In a bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

  2. Add vanilla extract and boiling water. Mix well until smooth.

  3. Stir in melted butter and beat until well combined.

Serve

  1. Spread the frosting on your favorite baked goods.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Cocoa powder + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + cocoa powdertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cocoa powder + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Powdered sugar
Provides sweetness and bulk, giving the frosting its body as it dissolves into the liquid.
Cocoa powder
Adds chocolate flavor and color to the frosting.
Boiling water
Dissolves the sugar and cocoa, loosening the mixture into a smooth, spreadable texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Mix well until smooth. Undissolved powdered sugar and cocoa leave grainy specks. Thorough mixing after the boiling water is added lets the sugar dissolve fully and gives an even texture.

“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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