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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A chocolate frosting made with powdered sugar, chocolate, vanilla, water, egg whites, and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first frosting

  1. Melt the chocolate and powdered sugar in 2 tablespoons of water over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat.

  2. Add the egg whites, mixing well.

Make the second frosting

  1. For the second frosting, melt 2 squares of chocolate over steam.

  2. Stir in 1½ cups of powdered sugar and 2 egg whites until combined.

Finish

  1. Frost the cake immediately after it comes out of the oven.

  2. Optionally, add a little vanilla to the frosting.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Chocolate
Supplies the main chocolate flavour and fat that gives the frosting its body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the frosting and helps it melt smooth and hold together.
Egg whites
Add structure and body to the frosting as they set.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the chocolate flavour.

The step that matters

Add the egg whites after removing from heat. Egg whites can scramble and turn grainy if they meet very hot chocolate. Removing the pan from the heat first lets them blend in smoothly and keeps the frosting silky.

“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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