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 ↓
Decorative Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Slowly beat the sugar into the egg white, spoonful by spoonful, for nearly an hour until glossy and smooth.
Practice and decorate
Use piping tubes to decorate the cake with sugar leaves and delicate tracing.
Practice with simple patterns traced on paper until you master the technique.
Once skilled, trace your pattern on the cake and cover it with scrollwork and leaves using the icing.
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.
-
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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk, and sets firm as the icing dries.
- Egg white
- Forms the protein structure that holds the sugar, giving a glossy, pipeable icing.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar slowly. Sugar must dissolve into the egg white gradually. Adding it too fast leaves grains and a weak, grainy icing that will not hold piped detail well.
“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
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.