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 ↓
Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Mix the butter and 4 tablespoons of icing sugar together with a wooden spoon.
Color 6 tablespoons of icing sugar with either coffee or chocolate.
Mix the colored icing sugar with boiling water using a knife.
Finish the cake
Spread the icing on the cake with a knife and allow it to harden.
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.
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Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + coffeetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Adds richness and softens the icing sugar into a smooth, spreadable paste.
- Icing sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk, forming the body of the icing.
- Boiling water
- Dissolves the icing sugar so the icing becomes fluid enough to spread.
The step that matters
Mixing the colored icing sugar with boiling water. Icing sugar dissolves unevenly if the water is added too quickly or too cold, leaving grainy or lumpy icing. Adding the water gradually and stirring until smooth gives an even texture that spreads well.
“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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