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 ↓
Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the frosting
Combine brown sugar and sweet cream in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a stringing consistency when tested with a spoon.
Remove from heat and stir until nearly cool.
Assemble
Spread the frosting between layers of 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.
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.
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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
- Brown sugar
- Provides sweetness and caramel flavor, and dissolves to form the frosting's base.
- Sweet cream
- Adds fat and moisture, making the frosting smooth and creamy rather than grainy.
The step that matters
Stirring while the mixture cools. Stirring only after it has cooled nearly completely lets sugar crystals form in a controlled way, giving a smooth, creamy texture. Stirring too early or too late can produce a grainy or hard frosting.
“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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