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Dessert

Tutti-frutti Icing

A fruit‑topped icing made with blanched almonds, figs, raisins, and citrus juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Tutti-frutti Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Chop the blanched almonds, figs, and seedless raisins finely.

  2. Mix the chopped fruit with the juice of an orange or lemon.

Assemble the icing

  1. Spread cooked icing on the cake.

  2. Drop some of the fruit mixture onto the icing.

  3. Spread more cooked icing over the fruit mixture.

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 + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  4. Fig + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

  5. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the fruit topping.
Figs
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the fruit mixture.
Seedless raisins
Add chewiness and concentrated sweetness to the fruit mixture.
Orange or lemon juice
Adds acidity and brightness, and moistens the chopped fruit.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, fig, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, fig, raisin. 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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