Name: Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons sweet cream; 2 tablespoons cocoa or grated chocolate; confectioners' sugar (to thicken)

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sweet cream
2 tablespoons cocoa or grated chocolate
confectioners' sugar (to thicken)

Directions

In a bowl, combine the sweet cream and cocoa or grated chocolate.
Gradually add confectioners' sugar until the mixture thickens to your desired consistency.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + cocoatop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together304 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cocoa + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together956 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet cream: Adds fat and moisture, giving the frosting a smooth, spreadable body.
Cocoa or grated chocolate: Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the frosting.
Confectioners' sugar: Sweetens and thickens the liquid cream into a frosting that holds its shape.