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Dessert

Marshmallow Frosting

A sweet frosting made from sugar syrup, egg whites, marshmallows, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Mix sugar, cream of tartar, and cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Stir until boiling.

  3. Cook without stirring until it drops from a wooden spoon like honey.

  4. Remove from heat.

Whip and finish the frosting

  1. Add 7 tablespoons of syrup to the beaten egg whites, beating constantly.

  2. Return the remaining syrup to the stove.

  3. Continue cooking until it spins a thread.

  4. Brush off the sugar and starch from the marshmallows.

  5. Place the marshmallows in the oven to plump without browning.

  6. Add the plumped marshmallows to the first mixture.

  7. Add the remaining syrup and beat until blended.

  8. Stir in the vanilla extract.

  9. Continue beating until the mixture glazes slightly on the sides of the bowl.

  10. Spread over cake as thickly as desired.

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

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 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

Sugar
Forms the syrup that sets into a sweet, glossy frosting structure.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, giving the frosting its light, airy texture.
Marshmallows
Add body, sweetness and a soft, stabilizing texture to the frosting.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the egg white foam and helps keep the sugar syrup from crystallizing.

The step that matters

Cook the syrup to the thread stage. Syrup that is undercooked stays runny and will not set, while overcooked syrup turns hard and brittle as it cools. Stopping at the thread stage gives a frosting that holds its shape and stays soft.

“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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