Brazilian Carrot Cake
A recipe perfect just as it is.
If there’s one thing Brazilians truly excel at—risking sounding a bit braggy—it’s baking cakes! Sure, we shine in many areas—our bold, innovative architecture, diverse cuisine, incredible caipirinhas, and world-class gymnasts, to name a few. But one cake stands out as a national favorite, and we bake it to perfection: the humble carrot cake.
I grew up eating it, and so did almost every Brazilian.
We bake it for all kinds of occasions—whether it’s to have a cake ready for the weekend, celebrate a baby shower, blow out candles on top, as simple afternoon snack, or impress a special guest.
I imagine we're also so emotionally attached to this recipe because our Bolo de Cenoura com Cobertura de Chocolate (receita em português aqui) is deeply tied to our entrepreneurial spirit. Many start by baking this cake at home, selling it to earn a bit of extra income, and putting their culinary skills to good use. I’ve often seen this cake serve as a gateway to larger cake ventures, turning a simple passion into thriving businesses.
It's a cake that transcends social boundaries and makes no distinctions.
Bundt, tray, loaf, square, round pan, roll, muffin, you name it. This cake has seen it all.
It’s also the kind of recipe many of us know by heart, falling squarely into the category of easy blender cakes that are adored in our cake-obsessed country. Making cakes in the blender for us is all about simplicity and efficiency. The process eliminates the need for multiple mixing bowls and utensils, making prep and cleanup a breeze.
While chocolate and carrot might seem like an unusual pairing compared to the traditional American carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, I can promise—even to the skeptics—that the delicate sweetness of the root vegetable and the deep, earthy tones of the dark chocolate glaze dance in perfect rhythm. And if you’ve read this far, what’s left but to trust me on this?
You may have encountered this Brazilian gem through The New York Times, where Yewande Komolafe's beautiful adaptation featured a condensed coconut milk Brigadeiro and sour cream. While I found her version incredibly interesting, as I love everything she writes about food (including her fabulous cookbook: My Everyday Lagos), I found that some of her adaptations (to my heavily biased Brazilian palate) didn't quite fit.
The way I grew up eating this cake, it was traditionally dairy-free, so the addition of sour cream made it a bit too rich for my taste. There was a touch of butter in the Brigadeiro indeed, but it was purely for glossiness—and if you skipped it, you’d be forgiven.
This cake has always embraced simplicity. So I believe that the kosher salt, grapeseed oil (with a je ne sais quoi of professional kitchen ingredients), sour cream, and Dutch-processed cocoa felt like excessive additions to a recipe that thrives on its straightforward charm.
In the comments section of The Times, I came across Patricia's thoughts:
This is not a dense cake. It is fluffy. Skip the sour cream. No one in Brazil uses it. Also, use regular condensed milk. Again, coconut condensed milk is not a thing in the country. If you'd like, add a bit of butter when cooking the condensed milk. It adds shine to the chocolate sauce. Do not overcook it, otherwise it gets too thick and hard to spread. Also use dark chocolate to cut a bit of the sweetness of the condensed milk. It is a simple and easy cake to make.
Could any Brazilian have said better?
So there I was, knee-deep in the comments section of the recipe (do you also love reading it?), thoroughly enjoying the lively debate over the 'innovations' and the purist defenses of the recipe. It was then I decided it was time to revisit and update the recipe I’d shared earlier in this newsletter.
I might not have known exactly what to say in the comments, but I do know what I can do: bake (and share). So, for you, here are two versions of the cake: one from my dear friend Joyce Galvão and another from yours truly. They’re as Brazilian as you can get, and if I may say so, they're a treat!
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Joyce Galvão's version is a traybake that embodies THE quintessential Brazilian carrot cake. It’s topped with an incredible crunchy chocolate shell. The hot glaze is poured over the sliced cake, locking in the moisture underneath while forming a sweet, crackling layer on top. I adore her recipe so much that I almost wish it were mine. But thanks to Joyce’s generosity, it’s now ours.
My version is baked in a Bundt, and is a tad less sweeter because that's how I've been eating my cakes recently. The glaze isn’t crunchy, but creamy. None of these versions are topped with Brigadeiro like the recipe from The Times, but with a topping that's so simple to whip up that most Brazilians don't even need a recipe (not that we need a recipe for Brigadeiro either, but you get it 😜). This chocolate glaze I suggest for my cake is also really good to coat popcorn. Let me know if you give it a try.
I met Joyce serendipitously about five years ago in a food writing course. By then, I had already been admiring her extraordinary work as a pastry chef and national pastry teacher for over a decade.
Starting out as a food engineer, she seamlessly transitioned her skills and passion for baking to the culinary world. She quickly rose to become a world-renowned pastry chef, perfecting her craft—sifting, whipping, glazing, and tweezing (as one should)—at iconic restaurants such as El Buli, The Fat Duck, and El Celler de Can Roca. Her exceptional talent earned her a well-deserved spot among the world’s pastry elite.
Through social media alone, Joyce sparked a cake revolution in Brazil. Her goal was to revive and celebrate our country's rich, colorful baking tradition. She aimed to honor and elevate native ingredients and techniques while blending that intuitive, national essence of baking with the precision required in haute cuisine. I'm happy to report she achieves that with great success!
Though she sits at the top of the pastry world, Joyce is also one of the sweetest, kindest, and most generous people I've ever encountered in the food industry. I’m honored to share her magic with my newsletter readers every time I have the chance to feature one of her recipes.
Did I mention that she is also the author of two bestselling baking books in Brazil?
In 2021 I had the opportunity to write for Cherry Bombe Magazine about my passion for cakes, and I knew instantly that I wanted to spotlight our spellbinding carrot & chocolate. To read the full story and learn more about Joyce's recipe, get a copy of issue 17 here.
As always,
Bon appétit!
See you next week,
OMG. Once I have the time to bake again and it’s reliably cool enough to turn my oven on, I know what I’m making!
Wicked! Carrot cake with chocolate just moved to the top of the birthday cake list in our house. So decadent and healthy. Haha