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Prauline Icing

A maple syrup and sugar icing with cream, butter, vanilla, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Prauline Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Combine sugar, maple syrup, and cream in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in butter and cook until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and pecan kernels.

Assemble

  1. Let cool slightly, then spread between cakes.

  2. Garnish the top with whole pecan kernels.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  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. Maple syrup + vanillatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together752 recipes

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

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, helps build the thick, set texture of the icing.
Maple syrup
Adds sweetness and maple flavour, and keeps the icing moist and glossy.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the icing a smooth, creamy texture.
Pecan kernels
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour that contrasts with the smooth icing.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. The sugar and cream mixture must be cooked long enough to thicken, but not so long that it turns grainy or hard. Removing it from heat at the right point gives a spreadable icing that sets 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.

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