Why it works: Cranberry and lemon work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Icing for Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar base
Boil 1 cup granulated sugar in 5 tablespoons sweet milk for 5 minutes.
Beat the mixture until cool enough to spread.
For colored icing, substitute 1 teaspoon boiling cranberry juice for water.
Prepare the gelatine
Soak 1 tablespoon gelatin in 4 tablespoons cold water for 30 minutes.
Dissolve the gelatin over hot water and strain into a bowl.
Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice and enough powdered sugar to achieve a pourable consistency.
Beat with an egg beater until light and fluffy.
Make the boiled frosting
For boiled frosting, add enough water to 1 cup sugar to cover it, and boil until it threads from a knife.
Beat 1 egg white to stiff peaks, then stir in the syrup when slightly cool and spread on 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.
-
Cranberry + lemontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together210 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + cranberrytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the sweet syrup that sets into the body of the icing.
- Gelatine
- Sets the icing so it holds a soft, glossy structure after spreading.
- Egg white
- Beaten to stiff peaks, it adds lightness and an airy, fluffy texture.
- Sweet milk
- Dissolves the sugar and adds moisture and softness to the icing.
The step that matters
Beat the egg white to stiff peaks before adding the syrup. Egg white foam traps air and holds its shape only when fully whipped. Adding slightly cooled syrup gently, rather than hot, prevents the syrup from cooking the egg and deflating the foam.
Swap the cranberry
The recipe marks cranberry as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, lemon, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Figfits better
- Cranberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, lemon, 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.
More cake icing recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.