Why it works: Almond and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 306 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Tutti Frutti Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Mix the chopped citron, candied cherries, seedless raisins, candied pineapple, and blanched almonds with boiled icing.
Make the icing
Combine the sugar and starch, then sift through gauze.
Beat the egg whites until frothy, ensuring to beat in one direction.
Gradually add the powdered sugar to the egg whites while continuing to whip for 30 minutes.
Set aside a small amount of icing for decoration.
Finish and decorate
Spread the icing smoothly over the cake with a knife once it comes out of the oven.
To color the icing, mix the coloring with a little colorless spirit, then stir into the icing until the desired tint is achieved.
Use a cone made of stiff writing paper to squeeze the colored icing for decoration.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Almond + saffrontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together306 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Raisin + saffrontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pineapple + almondtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together428 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
- Extra refined sugar
- Sweetens the icing and, when whipped with egg whites, adds body and a smooth texture.
- Fine white starch
- Helps stabilize the icing so it holds its shape and stays smooth.
- Blanched almonds
- Add a firm, crunchy texture against the soft icing.
- Candied cherries
- Add sweetness, color and a chewy bite to the icing.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites with sugar. Beating in one direction and adding sugar gradually lets the egg white proteins trap air evenly, forming a stable, glossy foam. Adding sugar too fast or over-beating can make the icing grainy or cause it to collapse.
Swap the saffron
The recipe marks saffron as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, pineapple, almond, sugar, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Saffronthe original
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, pineapple, almond, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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