Why it works: Sugar and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Coffee Icing
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and cold water.
Stir over medium heat until it reaches boiling point, then simmer for 4 to 5 minutes.
Pour the syrup into a bowl, add the coffee essence, and stir until the icing becomes less transparent as it cools.
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.
-
Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Icing sugar or fine castor sugar
- Sweetens the icing and, as the syrup cools, sets it into a thick, opaque coating.
- Coffee essence
- Gives the icing its coffee flavour.
The step that matters
Simmering the syrup. Simmering for the stated 4 to 5 minutes controls how much water evaporates and how concentrated the sugar becomes. Too little cooking leaves the icing runny, while too much makes it stiff and prone to hardening as it cools.
“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
Coffee Ice Cream91 recipes
Coffee Custard27 recipes
Coffee Cake21 recipes
Coffee Bavarian Cream14 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.