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Cocoa Frosting

A spreadable frosting made with powdered sugar, butter, cocoa, and boiling milk or coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cocoa Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, and cocoa.

  2. Add boiling milk or coffee gradually until the frosting is spreadable.

  3. Mix until smooth and well combined.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Butter + cocoatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Powdered sugar
Provides sweetness and bulk, forming the body of the frosting.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth texture and a rich mouthfeel in the frosting.
Cocoa
Supplies chocolate flavour and dark colour to the frosting.
Boiling milk or coffee
Adds liquid that dissolves the sugar and loosens the frosting to spreadable consistency.

The step that matters

Add the boiling milk or coffee gradually. Powdered sugar absorbs liquid unevenly, so adding the hot liquid a little at a time lets it dissolve fully and prevents a frosting that is too thin or lumpy.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk):

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Cocoathe original
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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