Fried Radish Cake (Singapore Carrot Cake) Recipe

Order a "carrot cake" in Singapore, and this is the savory pan-fried omelette you will get, filled with crispy, tender cubes of glutinous radish cake.

By
Yvonne Ruperti
A photo of Yvonne Ruperti, a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Yvonne Ruperti
Yvonne Ruperti is a food writer, recipe developer, former bakery owner, and cookbook author. She is also an adjust professor of baking at the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore.
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Updated October 20, 2023
Overhead view of fried radish cake, served on a white plate.

Serious Eats / Yvonne Ruperti

Why It Works

  • Baking the radish cake in a water bath is a good workaround for cooking this dish if you do not have a steamer setup large enough to accommodate the cake.
  • Frying the cubes of radish cake until browned and crisp adds flavor and textural contrast to the dish.

When you're just off the plane in Singapore, and everything looks, sounds, and smells foreign and exotic, seeing the words "carrot cake" on a menu seems sweetly comforting. But then you realize—through your heat exhaustion fog—that you're in Asia, that the sign is for a hawker stand, and that the woman underneath the sign is manning a giant wok. "This is gonna be interesting," I said to myself as I placed my order and then stood out of the way from the long queue that had formed.

A Singaporean cook cooking "carrot cake" in a wok. Their back is to the camera.

Serious Eats / Yvonne Ruperti

Carrot cake, also known as chai tow kway, was one of the first things I ordered at a hawker stand, precisely because I recognized the words. But not surprisingly, it's not what I thought it would be (silly American me). Carrot cake refers to a glutinous rice flour "cake" that's made from a white radish (or yam if it's yam cake) cut into cubes, wok or pan fried till crispy, then cooked into an egg omelette.

Closeup of black chai tow kway, served on a leaf-patterned plate with a ramekin of chile sauce.

Serious Eats / Yvonne Ruperti

The bits of radish cake taste mild and have a soft, pleasant texture. Common ingredients mixed into the omelette include fish sauce, preserved vegetables, garlic, and green onion. Dab on some chile sauce if you want it hot. There are two kinds that you can get: white or black. The black version (pictured above) is mixed with a dark sweet soy sauce. I personally find the dark version too sweet.

Packaged cylinders of carrot cake at a Sheng Siong Supermarket.

Serious Eats / Yvonne Ruperti

I'll assume that most carrot cake hawkers aren't cooking up homemade carrot cake, as it's kind of time consuming to make and you can readily find logs of it at the local market. For mine, however, I wanted to do it all from scratch so I could learn the ropes. I used Rasa Malaysia's recipe for fried radish cake as a guide for how to do it. That starts with a big ass radish (daikon).

Overhead view of a large daikon radish set upon a wooden work surface.

Serious Eats / Yvonne Ruperti

Grate it and simmer it till tender, then stir in a mix of rice flour and water. The mixture is then steamed (I used a water bath for mine), then cooled till sliceable. The homemade version of the radish cake is much more flavorful than anything I've tasted in the food courts. Though it's a bit time consuming to make the cake, this recipe made plenty, so I froze the leftover slab for a rainy Singapore morning when I'm craving a tasty omelette.

This recipe is adapted from Rasa Malaysia.

May 2013

Recipe Details

Fried Radish Cake (Singapore Carrot Cake) Recipe

Prep 10 mins
Cook 2 hrs
Active 50 mins
Chilling Time 4 hrs
Total 6 hrs 10 mins
Serves 2 servings
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1 large daikon radish (about 28 ounces), grated

  • 1 3/4 cups (about 7 ounces) rice flour

  • Kosher salt

  • 4 eggs

  • 2 teaspoons fish sauce

  • 3 tablespoons canola oil

  • 3 tablespoons Chinese preserved vegetables (see note)

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)

  • 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

  • 1/2 bunch scallions, sliced

  • 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

Directions

  1. Place grated radish in a large straight sided skillet or saucepan with lid. Add 1/3 cup water and bring to simmer over medium heat. Cover and gently simmer until radish is translucent and tender, about 40 minutes. Remove lid and let cool.

  2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 325°F or 165°C (see note). In a small bowl, whisk rice flour with 1 teaspoon salt and 3/4 cup water until smooth. Strain if there are lumps. Stir in cooled radish and any accumulated juice.

  3. Pour mixture into a cake pan and cover with foil. Poke a few holes in the foil. Set pan in a large roasting pan and fill roasting pan halfway with hot water. Bake until just firm, about 50 minutes. Let cool to completely firm up for easy slicing, at least 4 to 6 hours in the refrigerator.

  4. Remove cake from refrigerator and divide into thirds. Cut one of the pieces into 3/4-inch cubes and set aside. Wrap and freeze remaining pieces for another time.

  5. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with fish sauce. Heat oil in wok or nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add radish cake cubes and fry, stirring, until golden and crisp, about 5 minutes.

  6. Add preserved vegetables, garlic, and white pepper, and fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour eggs and scallions over mixture and cook, folding eggs from the sides over to the middle and pressing to hold the omelette together, until eggs are cooked through (see note). Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Special Equipment

8 or 9-inch cake pan, wok or nonstick skillet

Notes

Mei cai, or Chinese preserved vegetables, have been fermented with a salt brine. Preserved turnip is a common choice for this dish, though I used a jar labeled as "vegetables." It can be purchased in packets or in jars in Asian supermarkets. If you can't find it, either omit or use a lesser amount of sauerkraut.

Though I give directions for baking the cake in a water bath, this recipe traditionally starts with a steamed cake, which you can do if you own a steamer basket large enough to hold an 8- or 9-inch cake pan. Pour the mixture into the pan, set in the steamer basket, and simmer gently until the cake is just firm.

Don't worry if the eggs and radish cake break apart while cooking—it doesn't have to be a cohesive omelette.

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
571Calories
38gFat
43gCarbs
17gProtein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 2
Amount per serving
Calories571
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 38g49%
Saturated Fat 6g30%
Cholesterol 372mg124%
Sodium 1266mg55%
Total Carbohydrate 43g16%
Dietary Fiber 4g15%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein 17g
Vitamin C 27mg134%
Calcium 109mg8%
Iron 3mg15%
Potassium 680mg14%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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