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Cream Icing

A sweet icing made from butter, powdered sugar, evaporated cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cream Icing

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 ↓

Cream Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the powdered sugar and evaporated cream to the butter.

  3. Place the bowl over hot water and stir in the vanilla until smooth.

Use and adjust

  1. Let the icing cool slightly before using it on cakes.

  2. If the icing becomes too stiff, beat it again or return it to the hot water.

  3. If it hardens after cooling, add more cream to soften it.

  4. For chocolate icing, mix in cocoa to taste.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Powdered sugar
Provides sweetness and bulk, forming the body of the icing.
Evaporated cream
Adds moisture and softness so the icing can be spread.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth texture and richness.

The step that matters

Place the bowl over hot water and stir in the vanilla until smooth. Gentle warming helps the sugar, butter and cream blend into a smooth icing. Overheating or leaving it too long can make it runny, while cooling too much can cause it to stiffen and harden, so the icing needs to be checked and adjusted as it sits.

“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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