We love all types of carrot cake, but we have to admit we have a slight bias towards the savoury, fried (and typically spicy!) dish found in local hawker centres. You probably do too, so here are our top places to indulge in the best carrot cake in Singapore.
But That’s Not Carrot
The main ingredient in this dish is radish cake, which is made from steaming rice flour and radish. In Mandarin, the latter is literally known as ‘white carrot’, hence the “erroneous” (according to the English lexicon, that is) name of the dish.
Brought over by early Teochew immigrants, fried carrot cake in Singapore is commonly offered in two versions: the white (seasoned with light soya sauce or fish sauce) and the dark, where dark sweet soya sauce is used.
Black
Those living in the East should be familiar with Song Zhou Luo Bo Gao at Bedok Interchange Food Centre (#01-18, Blk 207 Upper Changi Road). Even though they use commercially made carrot cake, their superior skills with the wok gifts us deliciously wet and sweet black carrot cake with perfectly charred edges.
If you don’t like too much egg in your carrot cake, try Guan Kee Fried Carrot Cake (#01-59, 270 Queen Street) at Albert Centre Food Centre, which focuses more on the sauce and the cake. Their rendition probably lies on the greasier end of the carrot cake spectrum, but we’ll gladly put in an extra session at the gym for this guilty pleasure!
White
But if you like an almost equal proportion of egg to carrot cake in this dish, head on over to He Zhong Carrot Cake in Bukit Timah Food Centre (#02-185, 116 Upper Bukit Timah Road). This is a strong contender for the title of ‘best carrot cake in the West’, and we suspect it might be the use of fish sauce in their carrot cake.
With more than 40 years of history, Chey Sua Carrot Cake in Toa Payoh West Market (#02-30, 127 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, closed on Mondays) is another stall popular with white carrot cake fans. We like the contrast in texture we found in the carrot cake here – crispy on the top and soft below.
Yin-Yang
It’s not easy to excel in frying both white and dark versions but these stalls have done it! Fu Ming Carrot Cake’s (#01-49 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) interpretation of the dish is a potent combination of homemade carrot cake and superb wok hei (smoky flavour from cooking over high heat).
Another older-timer on the Singapore carrot cake scene is the 60-year-old Bukit Merah View Carrot Cake (#01-37 Bukit Merah View Food Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View). Probably the last of its kind to actually mill broken rice to make the carrot cake, the end product has justifiably great texture (soft, but not mushy). Crispy and chunky, both white and black versions are excellent.
Want to fry up your own carrot cake? Check out our carrot cake recipe here!
All images were contributed by the talented Nicola McMahon of Bright Star Photography.
Read more about Singapore’s local cuisine at www.YourSingapore.com.