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Carrot Cake Muffins

You can have all the same flavours and carrot cake in a muffin, plus the sweet cream cheese icing as a surprise filling.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 12 muffins
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly brush a 12-cup muffin tin with a little of the sunflower oil.

  2. Put the shredded bran in a bowl, pour over the milk and leave to soak for 10 minutes until softened.

  3. Finely grate the carrots. Finely grate the zest of the orange, then squeeze out its juice.

  4. Beat the cream cheese with the caster sugar and half the orange zest until smooth. Set aside.

  5. Whisk the eggs, muscovado sugar, orange juice and the remaining sunflower oil into the soaked bran mixture.

  6. Stir the self-raising flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger together, then fold into the wet mixture with the grated carrot and remaining zest until just combined.

  7. Divide the batter among the 12 cups. Top each with a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture and swirl lightly with a skewer.

  8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and the tops spring back.

  9. Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + gingertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Orange + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Orange + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together736 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream cheese, sugar, carrot, flour, cinnamon, ginger):

  1. Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Blueberryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Appleabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream cheese, sugar, carrot, flour, cinnamon, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).