Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Plain Icing for Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the powdered sugar.
Beat the egg white until stiff.
Gradually beat in the sugar, adding a little at a time, until it forms a thick and smooth paste.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pulverized sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk, and dissolves into the egg white to thicken it into icing.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam that holds air and gives the icing its light, stiff structure.
The step that matters
Gradually beating in the sugar. Adding sugar a little at a time lets the foam absorb it without collapsing. Dumping it in at once deflates the whipped egg white and leaves the icing lumpy or runny instead of smooth and thick.
“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.