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Dessert

Transparent Icing

A clear icing made by dissolving sugar in water and simmering until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Transparent Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the sugar and warm water in a saucepan.

  2. Heat until the sugar dissolves, then bring to a boil.

  3. Simmer for about 5 minutes until a thick syrup forms (230°F).

Finish and use

  1. Pour into a bowl and stir until almost cold and setting.

  2. Use as required.

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

What each ingredient does

Loaf sugar
Forms the syrup that sets into a clear, hard icing as it cools.
Warm water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be heated into a syrup without grainy crystals.

The step that matters

Simmering to a thick syrup. Sugar syrup sets according to how far its water has boiled off. Stopping at the right thickness, around 230°F, gives an icing that sets firm. Too little cooking leaves it runny, and too much makes it brittle or hard to spread.

“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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