Bolo de Cenoura

Bolo de Cenoura is a delicious carrot cake covered in chocolate ganache, and it is one of my favorite cakes ever. It is very different from what people in most countries consider a carrot cake. The Portuguese version seems to be inspired by the Brazilian version, which, in turn, seems inspired in the American version of this cake.

I don’t make this cake very often, but when I make it, it’s usually a hit. Recently, I made it again for my birthday, and this time I made it vegan, since I wanted everyone to be able to taste it. Since I was asked for the recipe, I thought: let’s just put it on my website, with both non-vegan and vegan options.

Bolo de Cenoura
Bolo de Cenoura

Cake Ingredients

  • 3 medium carrots
  • 250 mL of oil
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 440 g of sugar
  • 4 eggs (🌱 200 mL of aquafaba)
  • 480 g of flour
  • 1 heaping tsp of baking powder
  • Butter (🌱 plant-based margarine) for greasing the cake mold
  • Flour for dusting the cake mold

Topping Ingredients

  • 10 tbsp of cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp of butter (🌱 coconut oil)
  • 4 tbsp of sugar
  • 200 mL of milk (🌱 oat milk)

Preparation

  1. Peel the carrots, cut them into pieces and put them in the blender. Add the oil, the pinch of salt, the sugar and the eggs (🌱 aquafaba), turn it on and let it beat until you get a smooth cream.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a cake mold with butter (🌱 plant-based margarine) and dust it with flour. Pour the previous mixture into a bowl, add the sifted flour with the baking powder, fold in gently, pour into the pan. Bake the cake for 50 minutes. Check regularly with a toothpick or a spaghetto after 30 minutes. It might be ready sooner, depending on your oven.
  3. Meanwhile, prepare the topping: put the cocoa powder in a saucepan, add the milk, butter (🌱 coconut oil) and sugar, bring to the heat and let it cook, stirring constantly, for 15 minutes or until it forms a thick sauce. Check the cake is done with a toothpick, remove, let it cool, unmold, drizzle with the chocolate sauce and serve decorated as desired.

It was my first time making it vegan, so I will probably iterate on it and make some changes. I followed the packaging of the aquafaba, which said to replace every egg by 50 mL of aquafaba. However, aquafaba seems to make it more moist and dense than eggs, so I would probably use less aquafaba next time.

Enjoy this delicious cake 🍰!