Why it works: Cocoa and coffee work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Mocha Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the frosting
Cream the butter in a mixing bowl.
Gradually add the confectioners' sugar while continuing to beat.
Add the cocoa and coffee infusion drop by drop until the frosting reaches the right consistency to spread or pipe through a pastry bag.
Use or store
Use immediately or store in a cool place.
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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Cocoa + coffeetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together91 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Butter + cocoatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together548 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).
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Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + coffeetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,442 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to give the frosting a smooth, rich, fatty body.
- Confectioners' sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, and dissolves into the fat to set the frosting's texture.
- Breakfast cocoa
- Provides chocolate flavour and colour to the frosting.
- Coffee infusion
- Adds liquid to loosen the frosting and deepens the chocolate flavour with a coffee aroma.
The step that matters
Adding the cocoa and coffee infusion. Liquid added too quickly can make the frosting thin or split it, so adding it drop by drop lets you stop once the texture is right for spreading or piping.
“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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