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Dessert

Almond Icing

A sweet almond-based icing made with ground almonds, icing sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Combine ground almonds and icing sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add egg whites gradually, mixing until a smooth consistency is achieved.

Ice and dry the cake

  1. Spread the icing over your cake evenly.

  2. Allow the iced cake to dry in a moderately warm place, covered with a fine gauze or paper to protect it from dust.

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. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ground almonds
Forms the bulk of the icing and gives it a rich, nutty flavour.
Icing sugar
Adds sweetness and a fine, smooth texture to the paste.
Egg whites
Bind the almonds and sugar into a paste that dries to a firm, smooth coating.

The step that matters

Add the egg whites gradually and mix only until smooth.. Pouring them in at once can leave dry lumps of sugar and almond that are hard to work out, and an overly wet mixture will not hold its shape on the cake.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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