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Dessert

Frosting Without Eggs

A gelatin-based frosting made with lemon juice and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Frosting Without Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water.

  2. Add the juice of one lemon and mix well.

  3. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until smooth.

Finish

  1. Spread the frosting on the cake when it is 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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, spreadable frosting that holds its shape without eggs.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the frosting and thickens it into a smooth, creamy texture as it is beaten in.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright flavour that balances the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Spread the frosting only when it is cold. Gelatine sets as it cools. If the frosting is still warm or liquid when spread, it will run off the cake instead of holding a smooth, firm layer.

“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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