Name: Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 12 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 2-⅓ cups FOR THE COOKIES:; 1 teaspoon Whole Wheat Flour; 1 teaspoon Baking Powder; ½ teaspoons Cornstarch; ¼ teaspoons Ground Ginger; ¼ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg; ⅛ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon; ½ teaspoons Ground Cloves; 6 Tablespoons Fine Sea Salt; ¾ cups Unsalted Butter, Softened To Room Temperature; ½ cups Brown Sugar; 2 whole Granulated Sugar; 1 teaspoon Large Eggs; ⅓ cups Vanilla Extract; 1-¾ cup Apple Sauce; 8 Tablespoons Carrots, Grated; 8 ounces, weight FOR THE FILLING:; 1 teaspoon Unsalted Butter, Softened To Room Temperature; ½ teaspoons Cream Cheese, Softened To Room Temperature; 3-½ cups Vanilla Extract

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, butter, sugar):

Cardamomfits better
Allspicefits better
Gingerthe original
Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, butter, sugar. 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
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Apple Sauce	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cloves	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies