Why it works: Sugar and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Coffee Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the icing sugar and coffee together.
Warm the mixture over low heat until combined.
Use the icing as directed for cherry cake.
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 + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 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
- Icing sugar
- Provides sweetness and the bulk that sets the icing body.
- Very strong coffee
- Adds liquid to dissolve the sugar and gives the icing its coffee flavour.
The step that matters
Warm the mixture over low heat until combined. Gentle heat helps the sugar dissolve smoothly into the liquid. Too much heat can make the icing thin or grainy as it cools, so low heat and stirring until just combined gives a smooth result.
“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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