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Dessert

Bitter-sweet Feosting

A frosting made with confectioner's sugar, granulated sugar, cream, bitter chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Bitter-sweet Feosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Boil the confectioner's sugar and cream until thick.

  2. Beat the mixture and flavor it with vanilla.

Assemble and top

  1. Spread the mixture on the cake.

  2. Melt the two squares of bitter chocolate and spread it over the top.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Confectioner's sugar
Dissolves into the cream and provides sweetness and body as the frosting thickens.
Cream
Supplies moisture that reduces as it boils, giving the frosting a smooth, thick texture.
Bitter chocolate
Adds deep, bitter chocolate flavor that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the chocolate and sugar flavors.

The step that matters

Boil the confectioner's sugar and cream until thick. As the mixture boils, water evaporates and the sugar concentrates, which thickens it. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff or grainy as it cools.

“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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