During my exchange year at university in Canada, I lived with a few Brazilians and we quickly bonded over our love of food. I’ll never forget the day one of them made me a carrot cake; he couldn’t quite understand the confusion on my face when he presented bright orange slices of cake topped with chocolate frosting. It was, of course, delicious, and arguably more of an actual carrot cake than the spiced version I’m used to.
Brazilian carrot cake
The carrots are blended with oil until smooth, giving the batter its signature colour. Traditionally, this is finished with a brigadeiro-style topping, but I’ve gone with ganache for ease.
Prep 10 min
Cook 1 hr 15 min, plus cooling
Serves 12
280g carrots, washed and roughly chopped
180ml neutral oil, plus extra for greasing
170g caster sugar
80g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
285g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
For the topping
60g milk chocolate
60g dark chocolate
160ml double cream
A pinch of salt
Chocolate sprinkles (optional)
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4, and grease and line a 20cm square cake tin.
Put the carrots, oil and both sugars in a blender and blitz until very smooth. Add the eggs and give the mix a quick pulse to combine.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Pour in the wet carrot mixture and stir gently until fully combined with no pockets of flour hiding at the bottom. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, then bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove and leave to cool completely while you prepare the topping.
Finely chop the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl. In a small pan, heat the cream and a pinch of salt until steaming, then pour this over the chopped chocolate and leave it to sit for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth, then leave the ganache to thicken to a soft, spreadable consistency (you can speed this up by putting the mix in the fridge). Spoon this on to the cake, and spread it out evenly. Serve decorated with chocolate sprinkles, if you like.