Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Boil the chocolate and water together for 2 minutes.
Add the icing sugar and flavouring, then reheat without boiling.
Finish
Pour the icing over the 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 + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Icing sugar
- Dissolves into the warm liquid to give the icing its sweetness and body as it cools.
- Grated chocolate
- Provides the chocolate flavour and, as it cools, a glossy set with a rich texture.
The step that matters
Reheat without boiling. Once the icing sugar is added, boiling can make the icing grainy, thin, or dull. Gentle heat keeps it smooth and pourable.
“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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