Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 for Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Place the egg whites in a bowl and beat them with a fork for six strokes.
Add 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar and beat for 3 minutes.
Gradually add more powdered sugar, one spoonful at a time, while continuing to beat.
Beat until the icing can spread on the cake without running.
After adding the last of the sugar, beat for an additional 10 minutes.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Dissolves into the foam to add sweetness and body, helping the icing hold its shape.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar gradually while beating. Adding sugar slowly lets it dissolve into the whipped egg whites, which keeps the foam stable. Dumping it in at once can deflate the foam and leave a grainy, runny icing.
“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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