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Dessert

Chocolate Icing

A glaze made from melted German sweet chocolate, confectioner's sugar, egg, sweet cream, and vanilla flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Melt the German sweet chocolate in a bowl set over boiling water.

  2. Beat the egg in a separate bowl without separating the yolk and white.

  3. Mix the melted chocolate, confectioner's sugar, beaten egg, and sweet cream in the order given. Once combined, add vanilla flavoring.

Finish the cake

  1. Spread the icing an inch thick on the cake.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 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

German sweet chocolate
Provides the main flavor and, once melted and cooled, the body of the icing.
Confectioner's sugar
Sweetens the icing and helps it thicken into a spreadable texture.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the icing as it combines with the chocolate.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the mixture for spreading.

The step that matters

Adding the egg to the melted chocolate. If melted chocolate is very hot when the egg goes in, the egg can scramble or the mixture can turn grainy. Letting the chocolate cool slightly first keeps the icing smooth.

“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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