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Dessert

Marshmallow Frosting

A frosting made from sugar syrup, beaten egg whites, and marshmallows.

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 ↓

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.

  2. Heat until the sugar dissolves.

Whip and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites while mixing continuously.

  3. Add the marshmallow pieces to the mixture and continue to mix until fluffy.

  4. Place the bowl over hot water to dry out the frosting slightly.

  5. Spread the frosting on top of a cake when it is nearly cold.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
Granulated sugar
Dissolved into a syrup that sweetens the frosting and helps it set glossy.
Marshmallows
Add sweetness and stabilizing gelatin that keeps the frosting fluffy and soft.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be hot enough to cook the egg whites partly, and it must be poured slowly while mixing constantly. Pouring it in one go or while the whites are under-whipped can cause the foam to collapse or leave cooked lumps.

“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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