A while ago I learnt about Brazilian carrot cake. It looked so different to the carrot cake I’m used to, I wasn’t sure if I would like it.
I LOVE BRAZILIAN CARROT CAKE.
It is very different to the carrot cake I’ve always had, but in a good way. It’s way easier to make and the flavour is so good. If you’ve never tried this, I think you need to immediately.
Video Tutorial
What makes Brazilian carrot cake different?
If you’re wondering what the difference between this and the carrot cake most of us are used to, let me tell you what I’ve learnt:
When making the batter, you blend the carrots instead of shred them
This is what makes making this cake so easy.
You essentially just throw the ingredients into a blender and blend them together.
Typically with carrot cakes, you have to shred the carrots, which takes a while. But then there are also so many other steps.
You don’t have to do all this when making Brazilian carrot cake. Once again, it truly is so much easier.
There are no nuts, raisins or spices
Of course you can still add them if you wanted too, but from what I’ve seen, typically this cake is kept plain.
Instead of a cream cheese frosting, it is covered in brigadeiro
I feel like this is the biggest difference.
Instead of being filled with a cream cheese frosting, a thick chocolate sauce called brigadeiro is poured on top.
I’ve never had carrot cake with chocolate before, I wasn’t sure how it would taste.
But it taste sooooo good, it’s such a good combination.
Ingredients for the cake
Here are the ingredients you will need to make the cake batter:
- Carrots – in the recipe card below, I’ve said to use 300g. Make sure to weigh them after you have peeled the carrots, not before.
- Granulated sugar – caster sugar works too.
- Vegetable oil – any flavourless oil does work, but I like to use vegetable oil.
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Plain flour – also known as all purpose flour.
- Baking powder
- Salt – just a small amount to help enhance the flavours.
Baking the cake
Once the cake batter has been made, we’re going to bake it in a greased and lined 8 inch cake tin.
Since this cake only has one layer, I wanted this layer to be a little thicker.
So I did add a lot of batter into one cake tin.
Because of this, this cake will take a little longer to bake.
It took around 1 hour – 1 hour 10 minutes for me. It’s done once a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
I just wanted to mention, depending on your oven, sometimes when cakes are being baked in there for longer, then can end up becoming too brown on top.
So if at any point you feel like your cake is becoming brown too quick, all you need to do is cover the top of your tin with some tinfoil. Then place it back into your oven to continue baking.
With that being said, it’s not that big of a deal if it does turn too brown. So you don’t have to worry about it too much.
The brigadeiro
The next thing to make is the brigadeiro.
I looked at quite a few different recipes for Brazilian carrot cake, and I’ve seen that everyone makes the brigadeiro slightly different. Some recipes use cocoa powder, some use actual chocolate. Some add cream, some don’t.
Also quite a few recipes didn’t even make brigadeiro, they made a different kind of chocolate topping.
I decided to go with brigadeiro though, I don’t know how authentic the one I made is, I’m sorry if it is not authentic. But all I know is, it tasted amazing.
Here are the ingredients I used for it:
- Condensed milk
- Dark chocolate
- Double cream – also known as heavy cream.
- Unsalted butter
- Salt – again, just a small amount to enhance the flavours.
All you do is heat these ingredients together until it thickens, then pour it over the cake. And then your cake is done!
Do I have to use dark chocolate?
Dark chocolate works best for this….so I say yes.
If you don’t like dark chocolate because of the bitterness, I promise this brigadeiro doesn’t taste bitter.
The condensed milk has a lot of sugar in it; it gets rid of any bitter taste from the dark chocolate. So you don’t have to worry about this.
If you were to use milk chocolate, the brigadeiro will end up way too sweet, and it won’t set up as well. Dark chocolate works best.
Here are some other cake recipes I think you need to try:
Brazilian
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- For the cake:
300g carrots, peeled and slightly chopped
250g granulated sugar
250ml vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
250g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
- For the brigadeiro:
1 can condensed milk (397g)
150g dark chocolate
150ml double cream
50g unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Making the cake:
- Start by pre-heating your oven to 180c/350f. Also grease and line an 8 inch cake tin, leave this aside.
- In a blender, add the carrots, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract. Blend this until the mixture is smooth.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk these together.
- Now add the blended carrot mixture to your flour mixture. Whisk just until you can no longer see any flour.
- Pour this into your prepared cake tin and bake at 180c/350f for around 1 hour - 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. If at any point during baking you feel like the top of the cake is turning too brown, you can cover the top with some tinfoil.
- Once baked, leave to cool down.
- Making the brigadeiro:
- Once the cake has cooled down, you can make the brigadeiro.
- In a pot, add all the ingredients. Place this pot onto medium heat.
- Keep heating this, whiles stirring, until the chocolate and butter has melted.
- Once it has melted, carry on heating it and stirring at the same time, until the mixture thickens slightly. You want it to be thick, but still pourable.
- Take your cake out of the tin and place this onto a wire rack, upside down. Then place your wire rack on top of a tray.
- Pour the brigadeiro over this, until the whole cake is covered. Use a spoon or palette knife to smooth out the top.
- Let this sit for about 10 minutes, then move the cake onto a plate or board.
- Now you can cut into it and enjoy!
