The carrot here is actually a radish, in Mandarin they're termed white and red carrots. Carrot cakes are also commonly known as chai taow kway in Singapore, a Fujian name meaning vege head cake, for obvious reasons. It is nothing like the pastry cake, and it can a meal instead of a dessert.
Made from steaming rice flour with diced radish and water, chopped into cubes, then fried with egg, chilli paste and beansprout. They are also served black or white in Singapore, with dark sweet sauce added during frying for the black version . Ordering one will have to specify if you want it black or white, and if you want chilli. Some hawkers offer a mixed black and white version, I have not heard of a mixed chilli and no chilli version though.... it can just be done, depending on the cook's mood.
I have been told by one hawker that to know if a stall's cake is good, we must go for the white version, the dark ones would only be tasting the sweet sauce. I have since turned from black only to mixed or white only! My taste buds joy is my sweet tooth's misery...
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Carrot Cake, local dian xin
Jun 2021
Mainly selling carrot cake, this stall has a mini stall selling local breakfast items like chee cheong fun (ccf), shoon kueh, yam cake, and orh nee, a Teochew yam dessert, which I can see has decent sales.
You get a decent Q here, and most people come here for a carrot cake, fried by a lady. The frying from her is quite intense, with smell of fragrant spices filling the air, and if you sit around, you would hear a sneeze or two from someone in the area, I got it before too.
The carrot cake was very nice, plenty of egg, I love eggs and I have to say this was the first time I think there may be too much egg in the carrot cake. The carrot cake had a good texture, soft but solid, and was very tasty with whatever goes into it. As she did her frying behind a window, it was not easy to observe if any magic sauce was splashed onto the carrot cake, I’m sure there was with the fragrant taste, and smell all around. Funnily, the eggs in the carrot cake was not as tasty, else I wouldn’t have complained, but the carrot cake itself was brilliant.
I gave the ccf here a try, to my surprise, it is quite good! The ccf itself was pretty ordinary, but the sauces that came with it were brilliant. Very tasty sweet sauce, just the right level of sweetness, and a good umami taste within; the chilli sauce was the kicker, looked a bit diluted but it was delicious; slightly spicy and blended very well with the sweet sauce to give the ccf a very good combination of tastes in your pallets.
The shoon kueh (sliced bamboo shoots wrapped in a rice flour skin) is a bit dry on the inside, not the best I’ve had but it was suitably decent and felt very homemade.
Catch them while you can, working only 4 days a week, the old couple knows how to relax. They scowled at me when I joked that they are very cool business people, know how to relax… asking me if I wanted them to work themselves into the ground. My bad, everyone deserves a break, especially all these very hard working hawkers. Ziggy Salutes!
Yong Xiang Carrot Cake
29 Bendemeer Road, #01-35 Bendemeer Food Centre, s330029
1030am – 730pm, closed on Mon, Wed and Fri (No kidding)
Carrot Cake
Jul 2020
Crispy layers of carrot cake with a nice cuddly texture within!
My friend’s cousins run this stall, so I might be a bit biased…. Haha.
When we arrived early just after 11, I was very happy to see no queues at all, unlike what my friend claimed that “the q starts when they open”…. Only to realise that people q sitting around! Despite the close relationship (my friend was happily chatting with the cousins throughout the wait as they go about their business), we still waited 30 mins, my friend declining his queue cutting privileges, mainly because he wanted to chat with them. My poor growling stomach….
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They had moved here from Serangoon Gardens a long time back, and business have been thriving, so I doubt it really matters what I say here, they are popular.
When the carrot cake finally arrived, we can see why the Q just from the looks. It looked well fried, with a beautiful char! Fried CRISPY on the outside, it is nice and soft inside. The cake is cooked with a secret family formula, passed down from their father. It is tasty and great. Made with real carrots and turnips, and served only white, which another carrot cake hawker told me is the way carrot cake is to be appreciated, not covered in the taste of a dark sauce (thank you bro for spoiling my love for black carrot cake…! Grrrr… but he is right).
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The carrot cake is soft and tasty but crispy, very crispy, on the outside. Come early to beat the Q….
After trying this carrot cake, i can sincerely say I wasn't biased in my opinions above. Ah Bud Den (But of course...), otherwise there won't be a Q waiting for them to open every morning....
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Chey Sua Carrot Cake
127 Toa Payoh Lorong 1, #02-30 Toa Payoh West Market and Food Centre, s310127
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Food-Stand/Chey-Sua-Carrot-Cake-581344545264358/
630am – 1pm, closed on Mon
Fried Oyster/Carrot Cake
Jul 2021
Excellent carrot cake, and wonderful oyster omelette. Brilliant 2 in 1 stall.
They must have changed their name from what I notice in their facebook page, my photos are current! Just as well, this is the guy that taught me how to enjoy good fried carrot cake!
The boss at home is a fan of a stall nearby, with long Q, she would usually Q to get what she wants and I’d wait at a table, usually near Hock Kee. Mr Hock (not his real name…) recognised me and one day we chatted when I ordered some carrot cake. It had always been dark carrot cake for me, but Mr Hock told me what I was tasting would just be the sweet sauce, not the carrot cake. To enjoy a good one, I must eat it white, and that’s when you can tell the quality of the cake. Side glancing him, I asked if he had good carrot cake, “of course!”...
Let's see....
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It was a life changing experience! His carrot cake is specially made to his specifics. It is tender, soft but yet has a good solid bite. Not soft and moist at some places, or too hard and not tender at others. He fries his carrot cake well too… what comes out is a delicious and tenderly solid plate of carrot cake, at a good price too!
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Not sure why his facebook page has photos of awards for the fried oysters, he should be recognised for his carrot cakes! But then again, I should try his fried oyster….
And I did, the fried oyster here is quite delicious too. The omelette was fried crispy at the bottom, and soft with juicy half cooked oysters on top. The crispy bottom was fried almost to the point of being charred, something I love, but it was only the bottom layer that was burnt. The end product is a great combination of crispy egg, soft scrambled like egg, and the big juicy oysters; texture wise it was fantastic. Taste was brilliant as well. It is no surprise they have some accolades, not many stalls do both carrot cake and oyster omelette well, Hock Kee could well lead the race for this!
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Hock Kee Fried Oyster-Carrot Cake
49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-19 Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre, s555945
715 am – 2pm; 615 – 10pm Closed on Mon
https://www.facebook.com/Hock-Kee-Fried-Oyster-1491812687782767/
Carrot cake
Mar 2023
Fabulous carrot cake, made in house by a friendly and cheerful hawker.
A chance meeting with a friend led me here, he drove past me nearby and texted if I want to join him here, so I did. When I arrived, he was Q’ing for the famous Eunos bak chor mee, kindly texting me for my order, I saw this carrot cake stall and replied his kindness by ordering a plate to share.
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I didn’t expect much, and could not order a mix of black and white carrot cake so I went for the white since it’s “homemade”, let’s try his skill…. When I brought the funnily fried carrot cake to the table, and waited for my friend who was in the Q. His brother, and another friend, were staring at me in disbelief. Apparently, this is so popular, sometimes people would place their order, go to the market to buy groceries, and returned to wait for the order to be filled! I was in luck, just 3 ahead of me then!
I couldn’t resist, didn’t wait for Chin to return with the noodles and started tucking in. The carrot cake was delicious. Fried with chilli flakes all over, it is not spicy at all, with the chilli just about adding some taste and excitement. The cake itself was soft but solid to the bite, smooth and tasty; the egg fried beautifully like a smooth scrambled egg without the scrambling or milk; and there were lots of pickled turnips! Munchy munch!
The entire plate of carrot cake was filled with the very well fried smooth egg. This carrot cake is so wonderful I wasn’t sure which part I liked best, the egg, the cake, the pickled turnips, or the chilli flakes. Each item was in abundance to create a delicious mix. You got to give it a try!
After each had a few mouthful of this, Zac the brother decided we should have more as Roger the other friend kept raving about the black version. Thank you Zac, I can do a review of the black one without having to pay for the carrot cake! No luck Ziggy…. He was sold out by then! Barely 5 mins after I bought mine!
Didn’t quite believe Zac, as it was barely 1020am, I went to double check. Yes Mr Yang was packing up. I asked what time he starts, 545am… I jokingly asked if it’s some fengshui thing he starts at 545… he laughed and said he could be ready by 530 most of the time but 545 is usually safer. So early birds, come catch your cake….
I came back to try the black version another. There were 5 persons before me, took 10 mins to reach my turn. Turns out, it takes a while for the boss to get a whole big pan of cake ready for the next batch, once it’s ready, the carrot cakes are dished out in turn. If you’re lucky and you reach just as he has finished preparing, you’ll be served in 5 mins. The Q is really not that bad unless you’re unlucky and he sold out his pan full when it’s your turn. Then it’s about 10-15 mins wait.
The black carrot cake has the same wonderful egg and cake, good amount of pickled turnips. I find that it is a little bit on the sweet side, as the boss would scoop out some cake on the side and cook each plate of black cake on a small pan by the side, he might be inconsistent on a small pan, margins of error tighter. So if you’re not into something too sweet, maybe just let him know to be “less sweet”….
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I would go for the white version next time, tasted fresher without the black sauce, and you get to enjoy the delicious cake and egg much better.
Geylang Homemade Carrot Cake 扬氏芽笼自制菜头粿
7 Eunos Crescent, s400007
545am – 1030am (til sold out which could be 945-10am sometimes), closed on Mon
Carrot Cake
Aug 2021
This stall has been around since the food centre started, with carrot cake made by the handsome stall owner. That is my guess as to why my small appetite brunch partner suggested, “Let’s share a carrot cake” despite already having a plate of wanton noodle…
Good, she bought, and chatted…with glee, with the owner. I’d have done that anyway as the stall has its attractive charisma, $3 saved.
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The black version was ordered, not sweet enough, wondering who/what she was referring to as I thought the carrot cake is decent in that department. Texture wise, it is soft yet compact, not the watery floury soft. A well fried plate of carrot cake which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m certain this stall is still standing not just because of the owner’s looks, or sweetness, but the quality of his product…
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Fried Carrot Cake
590 Upper Thomson Road, #01-14 Sembawang Hills Food Centre, s574419
9am – 6pm, closed on Wed
Carrot Cake
Sep 2021
Signature Bottom Charred Carrot Cake
The Q for this can be long but the wait is decent, they cook by batch so if you arrive just as they start to cook the next batch, the wait could be 5-10 minutes longer. Operationally efficient, they have 2 chefs, likely husband and wife team, one does the white carrot cake, the other the black. A young man, (or a young lady) would go down the Q taking orders, if you are lucky, you can get served ahead of the Q if your order is for the white and those ahead are black, or vice versa.
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Now for the food. The carrot cake itself felt a little powdery, could be a lemon that day I tried. I didn’t ask but it is pronounced proudly that their carrot cake is handmade daily, fresh.
Their draw is the crispy fried bottom with a soft top. The white carrot cakes comes fried with a hint of char, crispy at the bottom, while the rest of the carrot cake is filled with nicely cooked eggs. Every mouthful would have about 30-70 crispy to soft ratio. Lovely.
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The black carrot cake is pretty regular, I don’t find their dark sauce too fantastic, but I do notice they have about a 70-30 order for the white so the black is quite popular too.
There is another one at ABC Brickworks if you live slightly more central….
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Ghim Moh Carrot Cake
20 Ghim Moh Road, #01-16 Ghim Moh Hawker & Market, s270020
630 – 1pm, closed Mon and Tue
6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-140, Singapore 150006
745am – 6pm (3pm on Sunday), closed on Mon