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
Make the icing
Mix the icing sugar with the water.
Add the coffee essence and stir until combined.
Finish
Spread the icing over the cake while it is still warm.
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 bulk, and sets into a smooth glossy coating as it dries.
- Coffee essence
- Adds concentrated coffee flavour and aroma to the icing.
The step that matters
Spread the icing while the cake is still warm. Warm cake softens the icing so it spreads thinly and evenly. Once it cools, the icing sets quickly and becomes harder to spread smoothly.
“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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