Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Ice Cream Icing for White Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil 2 cups of powdered sugar with enough water to make a thick syrup.
Remove from heat and add 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
Let the syrup cool, then fold in the beaten egg whites and 2 teaspoons of citric acid.
Make the icing
In a separate bowl, combine 1 pound of powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon of cold water.
Beat 3 egg whites lightly and add to the sugar and water mixture.
Place the bowl in a vessel of boiling water and heat until the mixture becomes thin and clear.
Once it thickens, remove from heat and stir until cool enough to spread.
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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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
- Egg whites
- Whipped proteins that trap air and set into a light, stable foam structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Dissolves into the syrup to provide sweetness and body for the icing.
- Citric acid
- Adds acidity that stabilises the egg white foam and keeps the icing from turning grainy.
The step that matters
Heating the icing over boiling water. The mixture must be heated only until it thins and turns clear. Overheating can scramble the egg whites and make the icing grainy or lumpy, while too little heat leaves it unset and runny.
“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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