Name: Mocha Frosting
Ingredients: 1 cup powdered sugar; ½ cup butter, softened; 4 teaspoons cocoa powder; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 4 teaspoons strong hot coffee

Why it works: Cocoa powder and coffee work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 541 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Mocha Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

In a bowl, cream together the powdered sugar and softened butter.
Add the cocoa powder and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth.
Stir in the hot coffee until well combined.

Finish

Spread the frosting on your cake.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Cocoa powder + coffeetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together541 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vanilla + coffeetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,391 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Cocoa powder + vanillatop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,189 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,050 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and bulk, giving the frosting body and a smooth texture.
Butter: Provides fat that creams with sugar to make the frosting rich and spreadable.
Cocoa powder: Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color of the mocha frosting.
Strong hot coffee: Intensifies the chocolate flavor and adds liquid to loosen the frosting.

“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.