Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Icing for Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Gradually sift in the sugar, powdered as fine as possible, then add the starch, also finely powdered. Beat the mixture until the sugar is smooth.
Ice and finish
Spread the icing over the cakes using a broad flat knife.
Place the cakes in a cool oven to dry and harden without coloring.
For rich cakes, add a layer of almond paste before icing.
Decorate with colored icing, crystallized fruit, or candied peel before the icing dries.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the icing its light structure.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the icing and, when finely powdered, dissolves smoothly into the foam.
- Starch
- Stabilizes the icing and helps it dry firm rather than weeping or collapsing.
The step that matters
Placing the cakes in a cool oven. The oven must be cool so the icing dries and hardens without browning. Higher heat would color the surface and could cause the foam to set unevenly.
“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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