Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Place the sugar in a dish.
Gradually beat in the egg white with a flat whisk until thick.
If the icing is too thick to spread smoothly, add a teaspoon of cold water.
Ice the cake
Use immediately to ice your 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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Confectioners sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk, forming the body of the icing.
- Egg white
- Whips into a foam that thickens the sugar into a spreadable icing.
The step that matters
Beating the egg white into the sugar. Adding the egg white gradually lets the sugar dissolve and blend evenly, giving a smooth, thick icing instead of a lumpy or runny one.
“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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