Carrot cake – Brazilian style

My mom used to bake cakes and make desserts every week. I’d always take a slice of freshly baked cake to school to eat as a snack between classes.

This cake is one of the most common cakes here in Brazil and it’s different from the American and European carrot cake recipes I’ve seen and made.

We blend the carrots with all the other ingredients and the cake has a beautiful and intense orange color.
There are no nuts, raisins or spices in this cake, and the cream cheese frosting is replaced by a chocolate icing – so simple and delicious that can be used in other cake recipes, too.

I once added chocolate chips to the batter – it was great!

Carrot cake – Brazilian style

250g carrots – aprox. 3 small carrots
260g all purpose flour
320g sugar
4 eggs – if you use very large eggs cut down to 3
200ml vegetable oil
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Chocolate icing:
4 tablespoons hot chocolate powder or 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF. Grease and flour a 24cm ring pan - I used a slightly smaller pan, and this is what happened:

Chop the carrots in small pieces.
Place all the ingredients in a blender – liquids first – and blend for a couple of minutes until you get a creamy mixture.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

For the icing: mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it boils.
Remove from heat and let it stand for 5 minutes before pouring it over the cake.

Serves 10-12.