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Dessert

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

A frosting made from sugar, chocolate, water, marshmallows, cream of tartar, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and water until it reaches the soft-ball stage.

  2. Add chocolate and marshmallows, letting it stand for a few moments.

Make the frosting

  1. Add cream of tartar and pour the mixture onto stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Beat the frosting until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Use the frosting between layers of cake and on top.

  2. Soften in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for a few minutes, then let it stand in the sun.

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

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the frosting and forms the syrup that gives it body.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, helping the foam stay stable and less likely to collapse.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and richness to the frosting.
Marshmallows
Melt into the hot syrup, adding sweetness and a soft, smooth, thickening texture.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar and water to the soft-ball stage. Sugar syrup's final texture depends on its temperature. Stopping short leaves it runny, while going too far makes the frosting hard and grainy once it cools.

“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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