Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Boiled Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Boil water, cream of tartar, and powdered sugar together rapidly for about 12 minutes.
Test the syrup by rubbing a drop between your finger and thumb; it should form a soft ball if done.
Be careful not to let the syrup burn while boiling.
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.
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Powdered sugar
- Provides the sweetness and, once boiled to a syrup, the body of the icing.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a smooth syrup.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidity that helps keep the sugar syrup from crystallizing and turning grainy.
The step that matters
Watching the syrup as it boils. Sugar syrup changes quickly near the end of cooking. Too little boiling leaves it too thin to set, while overcooking darkens the sugar and can make it taste bitter or burnt. The soft-ball test shows when the concentration is right.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 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.