Name: Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Cook time: 3 h 30 min
Yield: 1 (13-by-9-inch) cake
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg; 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice; 1/2 teaspoon fine salt; 4 large eggs; 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar; 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar; 1 cup vegetable oil; 1/2 cup whole-milk plain yogurt; 1 1/2 pounds carrots , peeled and grated on the large holes of a box grater or with a metal grating attachment in a food processor (about 5 cups); 1 cup walnut halves (about 3 ounces); 2 sticks unsalted butter , at room temperature; 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese (1 pound), at room temperature; 2 cups powdered sugar , sifted; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, sugar, milk, yogurt):

Cardamomfits better
Allspicethe original
Clovefits about as well
Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, sugar, milk, yogurt. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe