Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Maple Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the frosting
Combine the maple sugar and cream in a granite saucepan.
Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
Boil without stirring until it forms a soft ball in cold water.
Remove from heat and beat constantly until it reaches a spreadable consistency.
Finish
Spread quickly over the cake.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Maple sugar
- Provides the sweetness and maple flavor, and forms the sugar structure of the frosting.
- Cream
- Adds fat and moisture, giving the frosting a smoother, creamier texture.
The step that matters
Beat constantly after removing from heat. Beating while the boiled sugar cools makes tiny sugar crystals form, turning the syrup into a thick, spreadable frosting. If it is left to sit unbeaten, it can set into a hard, grainy mass instead.
“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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