Name: Double Chocolate Football Cupcakes
Ingredients: right|300px|link=; 1½ cups flour; 1 cup sugar; 3 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder; ½ tsp salt; 1 tsp baking soda; 3 tbsp butter or margarine; 1 tbsp vanilla; 1 tbsp white vinegar; 1 cup cold water

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. 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.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cocoa powder + vanillatop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,189 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,241 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + cocoa powdertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,244 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cupcake crumb together as it bakes.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the cupcakes a tender, moist crumb.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cupcakes rise.
White vinegar: Acidifies the batter so it reacts with the baking soda to help the cupcakes rise.
Butter or margarine: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the crumb.

The step that matters

Add remaining ingredients and pour into tins promptly. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acid in the batter, so the batter should go into the tins and into the oven without long delay to get good rise.

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Double Chocolate Football Cupcakes