Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Icing for Above

A sweet almond icing made with sugar, blanched almonds, rose water, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Icing for Above

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Pound the almonds with rose water.

  2. While pounding, make a syrup and clarify it with the egg white.

  3. Once clear, quickly mix in the almonds to prevent them from turning yellow.

  4. Stir until the mixture thickens to a toffee-like consistency.

Finish

  1. Spread on the cake using the back of a spoon.

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. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  4. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

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

  5. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds
Form the bulk of the icing and give it a firm, paste-like body.
White sugar
Makes the syrup that thickens into a toffee-like icing and adds sweetness.
Egg white
Helps clarify the syrup by binding impurities so they can be removed, leaving it clear.
Rose water
Adds a floral aroma and flavor to the almonds.

The step that matters

Mix the almonds in quickly once the syrup is clear. Hot sugar syrup keeps darkening while it sits, so stirring the almonds in right away prevents them from turning yellow. Stirring until the mixture thickens then sets the icing to a toffee-like consistency.

“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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes