Boiled or Fondant Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat.
Boil slowly without stirring until a drop looks like spun silk.
Remove from heat and let cool until slightly warm.
Stir and use
Stir continuously in one direction until smooth and creamy.
Flavor to taste while stirring.
Use immediately or store in a warm vessel to soften later.
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
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the sugar structure of the icing as it crystallizes into a smooth, set texture.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into a syrup.
The step that matters
Stir continuously in one direction until smooth and creamy. Stirring the cooled syrup encourages many very small sugar crystals to form, which gives a smooth texture. Stirring too little or unevenly can leave a grainy icing.
“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
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 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.