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Buckwheat and Butternut Cupcakes with Tahini Maple Icing

These vegan cupcakes are deliciously moist, thanks to their secret ingredient: butternut squash.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butternut squash and tahini work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and 8 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 10
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, sesame (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). Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners, using 10 cups.

  2. Mash the cooked butternut squash until smooth, then stir in the 4 tbsp coconut oil, 4 tbsp maple syrup, 2 tsp vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar.

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buckwheat flour, ground cinnamon and baking powder.

  4. Fold the dry ingredients into the squash mixture until just combined, then divide the batter evenly among the 10 liners.

  5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then move to a rack to cool completely.

  6. For the icing, beat the 130g coconut oil with the 1½ tbsp maple syrup, 2 tbsp tahini and 2 tsp vanilla extract until smooth and fluffy. Chill for 15 minutes if it is too soft to spread.

  7. Spread or pipe the icing onto the cooled cupcakes, then top each with dried rose petals or grated vegan chocolate.

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. Butternut squash + tahinitop 25% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Coconut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Cinnamon + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Butternut squash + flourtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Buckwheat + flourtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butternut squash, buckwheat, flour, cinnamon, maple syrup, vanilla, apple cider vinegar):

  1. Pumpkinbetter flavor fit
  2. Applebetter flavor fit
  3. Blueberryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut squash, buckwheat, flour, cinnamon, maple syrup, vanilla, apple cider vinegar. 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).