Skip to main content
Dessert

Marshmallow Icing

A sweet icing made from sugar syrup, marshmallows, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Marshmallow Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and boiling water in a saucepan; boil until syrup forms.

Prepare the marshmallows and egg whites

  1. Heat marshmallows in a double boiler until softened.

  2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Make the icing

  1. Pour hot syrup over beaten egg whites and mix well.

  2. Add softened marshmallows and continue heating until the icing reaches a spreadable consistency.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Granulated sugar
Dissolves into the syrup that sets the icing's sweetness and body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
Marshmallows
Melt into the mixture, adding sweetness and a smooth, stable texture.
Boiling water
Dissolves the sugar to form the hot syrup that is folded into the egg whites.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be hot and poured in a steady stream while beating, so it cooks the egg white proteins slightly and stabilizes the foam. Pouring too fast or letting the syrup cool can deflate the whites and leave the icing runny.

“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 CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes