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Dessert

Plain Chocolate Frosting—

A simple chocolate frosting made by melting chocolate, adding boiling water, sugar, and vanilla, then beating until smooth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Plain Chocolate Frosting—

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the chocolate over hot water.

  2. Add boiling water and stir until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat, gradually add sugar, then vanilla extract.

  4. Beat for two minutes and spread on the cake.

  5. Add a few drops of boiling water if necessary to make frosting smooth.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Confectioners' sugar
Adds sweetness and body, thickening the frosting as it dissolves into the chocolate.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and richness, along with fat that gives the frosting a smooth finish.
Boiling water
Adds moisture and loosens the melted chocolate so it becomes smooth and spreadable.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma that rounds out the chocolate flavour.

The step that matters

Add the sugar gradually, off the heat. Adding the sugar slowly and away from the heat lets it blend evenly into the melted chocolate and helps prevent lumps. Adding too much water at once can make the frosting thin, so add extra water only a few drops at a time.

“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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