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 ↓
Cream Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Boil sugar, water, and cream of tartar until it spins a thread.
Remove from heat and slowly drip over beaten egg whites.
Stir rapidly and continue beating until the frosting reaches the right consistency.
Add the marshmallows
Cut marshmallows into a bowl and mix with enough icing to cover well.
Assemble the cake
Spread a layer of icing and marshmallows on one cake layer.
Place the other layer on top.
Ice the top, adding marshmallows.
Use a total of 12 sticks of marshmallows.
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).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Sweetens the frosting and, cooked to a syrup, gives it body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the mixture, helping the beaten egg white foam stay stable.
- Marshmallows
- Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture to the frosting.
The step that matters
Drip the hot syrup slowly while beating. Pouring the hot syrup in slowly while beating constantly lets it blend evenly into the egg whites. Adding it all at once can deflate the foam and leave uneven, streaky 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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