Name: Hummingbird Cupcakes
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 22 to 24 cupcakes
Ingredients: 1 whole fresh pineapple; 2 cups all-purpose flour; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ¾ teaspoon salt; ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 & 1/3 cups mashed banana (2 to 3 large bananas); 2/3 cup crushed pineapple, drained (about half of a 20-ounce can); 2/3 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped; 2/3 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened will work); 1 & 1/3 cups granulated sugar; 11 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled; 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 eggs; 12 ounces cream cheese; ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract; 4 cups powdered sugar

Why it works: Pineapple and banana match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 733 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

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.

Pineapple + bananatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together733 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Banana + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together549 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Pineapple + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together651 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Walnut + coconuttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,147 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, flour, cinnamon, banana, coconut, sugar, butter):

Almondfits better
Macadamia nutfits better
Cashew nutfits better
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, flour, cinnamon, banana, coconut, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Banana	1 medium (118g)	105
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Pineapple	1 cup chunks (165g)	82
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Pecan	1 half (4g)	20
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Hummingbird Cupcakes