This is not the Western cake with the stredded orange root. It is an Asian dish. Actually, its name is quite a misnomer as the main ingredient is raddish. There’s no carrot involved at all.
I got the recipe from my colleague who enjoys baking and cooking. Spent 4 hours in total for preparation and actual cooking on this dish today (could be shorter but I was feeling unwell). O boy, what a relief when the final product was decently edible!
For those who have the time and patience to spare, here’s the recipe.
Carrot Cake: Pan-Fried
Ingredients
Raddish – 2 large ones weighing 800g
Chicken broth – 1 packet (330ml) or 1 cup
Rice flour – 250g
Corn starch – 100g
Vegetable oil – 2 tbsps
Chinese sausage – 2 sticks
Dried shrimps – 40g
Dried / fresh shitake mushrooms – 14
Seasoning: vegetable oil (1 tbsp) + salt (1.5 tsp) + white ground pepper (0.5 tsp) + 5 spice powder (1 tsp)
Method
1) Pre-soak dried shrimps & dried mushrooms until soft. Grease an 8″ x 2.5″ round tin pan or 8″ x 8″ x 2.5″ square tin pan.
2) In the meantime, peel raddish and shred it. Put it into a big pot and add chicken broth to cook it for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
3) Dice mushroom and dried prawns into small pieces. Set aside
4) Dice Chinese sausages coarsely. Set aside.
5) Strain cooked raddish to collect its ‘juice’ in a huge bowl. Top up the raddish juice with water to make up to 4 cups. Add seasoning and stir well. Set aside to cool. Reserve the cooked shredded raddish for later use.
6) Heat up 2 tbsp oil into a wok (or deep frying pan). Add Chinese sausage and fry for a while. Add dried shrimps and mushrooms and fry until fragrant. Turn off the flame and leave it in the wok.
7) Sift both rice and corn flour into the cooled raddish juice and mix well. Alternate sifting and stirring to avoid formation of lumps. Important: Ensure that no lumps are formed. Sieve the mixture if necessary.
8) Heat up the wok again and add the cooked raddish. Stir to mix evenly with other ingredients. Once raddish is heated, gently stir the flour mixture and carefully pour it into the wok. Stir continuously until mixture become paste-like. Dish it into the greased pan.
9) Steam on high heat for 1 hour.
10) After steaming, carefully remove the cooked carrot cake by inverting it onto a plate. Wet knife with water and cut it into square pieces of about 1.5 – 2 cm thickness. Wet knife each time to make a clean cut.
11) Add oil to a pan to do shallow-frying. Fry until carrot cake is just about golden brown and crispy.
12) Serve on a plate lined with paper kitchen towels to absorb excess oil. This pan-fried version is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Thai sweet chilli complements well with this dish. 
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