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Dessert

White Icing

A versatile icing for cakes, available in white, chocolate, filling, and boiled varieties.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

White Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the white icing

  1. Mix 1½ cups confectioner's sugar with enough milk or cream to achieve a soft fudge consistency, then beat well.

  2. Add flavoring.

  3. If the icing is too thick, add more milk until smooth.

  4. Spread on the cake.

Make the chocolate icing and filling

  1. Melt 2 squares of Baker's unsweetened chocolate.

  2. Mix melted chocolate into the white icing.

  3. Combine 1½ cups confectioner's sugar with 1 egg yolk for the filling.

  4. Mix thoroughly.

  5. If the filling is too thick, add a little milk.

  6. If the filling is too thin, add more sugar.

  7. Flavor with orange.

Make the boiled icing

  1. Combine 2 cups sugar and ½ cup hot water in a saucepan with ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar for boiled icing.

  2. Boil until the syrup spins a thread.

  3. Do not beat the egg whites.

  4. Slowly pour the hot syrup into the egg whites while beating continuously.

  5. Continue beating until the mixture is white and thick enough to spread on the cake.

  6. If the mixture becomes too hard, add 1-2 tablespoons of cold water.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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 a soft, sweet base that sets into a smooth icing.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that gives the boiled icing its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Forms the syrup that sweetens the boiled icing and helps it set firm.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the egg white foam so it stays smooth and holds its shape.
Unsweetened chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and dark color to the icing.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and body to the filling.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the hot syrup into the egg whites while beating continuously. The hot syrup cooks the egg whites as it is beaten in, forming a stable, glossy foam. Pouring too fast or stopping to beat can cause lumps or a runny, collapsed icing.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, vanilla, chocolate, egg, cream. 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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