Name: Spiced Apple Cupcakes Recipe
Cook time: 35 min
Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon fine salt; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger; 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature, plus more for coating the muffin pans if needed; 2 cups granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 large eggs , at room temperature; 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk , shaken and at room temperature; 3 cups shredded Gala or other baking apples (about 4 medium apples), shredded on the large holes of a box grater

Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 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.

Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cinnamon, butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, buttermilk):

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Clovefits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cinnamon, butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, buttermilk. 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
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Spiced Apple Cupcakes Recipe