Our Carrot-Cake Pancakes (4,400 Ft at both Cookie Beacon brunch spots in Budapest) are a stack of vegan fluffy pancakes layered with mascarpone coconut cream, with homemade berry jam in the centre, finished with cinnamon, crunchy almonds, goji, orange zest, mint and an Oreo.
They are the only plate in the Hearty Brunch section of our card for brunch in Budapest that our menu tags vegan, at both spots. Both serve them all day, and neither takes bookings.
What makes our pancakes a carrot cake?
Here is the story of the stack, from the people who put it on the card:
Our staple pancakes but made vegan. Thick pancakes with grated carrots, apples and cinnamon remind of a classical Carrot Cake. Luscious vegan mascarpone cream keeps the stack together. To balance out the sweetness, sour berry jam fills the center of the stack and runs out when slicing the stack through.
Taken one layer at a time:
The pancakes. Our staple pancakes, made vegan. The story puts grated carrot, apple and cinnamon into each carrot cake pancake in the stack, and says that is what makes them remind you of a classic carrot cake. In our close-up you can see strands of grated carrot in the pancakes. The card lists the cinnamon; the carrot and the apple come from the story.
The cream. The story calls it a vegan mascarpone cream and says it keeps the stack together. The card calls it mascarpone coconut cream. In our photos it is the two white layers between the pancakes and the swirl on top.
The jam. Berry jam in the middle of the stack, which the story calls sour and says runs out when you slice through. The card calls it homemade berry jam. Our close-up caught it running out of the bottom layer.
What is on the Carrot-Cake Pancakes?
Our Budapest menu lists nine things, here with the Hungarian names:
- Vegan fluffy pancakes (vegán „fluffy” amerikai palacsinta). In our photos, a stack of three.
- Mascarpone coconut cream (mascarponés kókuszkrém).
- Homemade berry jam (házi bogyós gyümölcsdzsem).
- Cinnamon (fahéj). Dusted over the cream and the plate.
- Crunchy almonds (ropogós mandula). Slivered, around the stack.
- Goji (goji). Small red berries, scattered with the almonds.
- Orange zest (narancshéj). Over the cream and the top pancake.
- Mint (menta). One sprig.
- Oreo (oreo). One cookie, standing in the cream.
Our photos also show two dried orange slices standing in the cream on top, which the Budapest card does not list; it lists orange zest. The card’s list is the one we can vouch for here. It prints no add-ons for this plate.
Fluffy pancakes or palacsinta?
In Budapest, palacsinta on its own usually means the thin Hungarian pancake, closer to a French crêpe, rolled or folded around a filling. That is why the Hungarian half of our card says vegán „fluffy” amerikai palacsinta: vegan fluffy American pancakes. These are the thick kind, which the story calls thick pancakes, and in our photos there are three in the stack. If you are looking for fluffy pancakes in Budapest rather than crêpes, this is that plate.
Are they really vegan?
Our Budapest menu tags them vegan and vegetarian at both brunch spots, and the card itself says vegan fluffy pancakes.
The cream’s name can look odd on a vegan plate, because mascarpone is usually an Italian dairy cheese. Here the word names the style of cream, not the dairy kind: the story calls it a vegan mascarpone cream, and the owners confirmed the plate vegan in writing. Like the other vegan dishes on our Budapest menu, they are cooked with reduced seed oils.
Three things to know before you order. The Oreo on top is a packaged cookie, so if you avoid even traces of milk, ask our team about it. The plate is not tagged gluten-free. And it carries almonds.
Are they the same in Bucharest and Belgrade?
Not quite. Our Belgrade brunch spot on Kralja Petra serves Carrot-Cake Pancakes for 1,050 RSD with cream cheese frosting, the classic carrot-cake topping, so they are vegetarian there but not vegan. Our Bucharest card calls them Carrot-Cake Vegan Pancakes, 51 lei, with vegan mascarpone and strawberries, and lists no almonds, orange zest or Oreo. Budapest’s stack is the one on this page.
Where does carrot cake come from?
Carrots have gone into European puddings and cakes for centuries. The modern carrot cake is often said to have caught on in Britain during the Second World War, when sugar was rationed and carrots were plentiful. Cream cheese frosting is usually described as the American addition, from around the 1960s and 1970s. Carrot cake built from pancakes is a much newer brunch idea; ours leaves the cream cheese out.
Where do they sit among our dishes?
The other pancakes on our Budapest card are the Wild-West Breakfast Pancakes, 4,950 Ft: maple cheddar pancakes with fresh corn, cheddar cheese and crispy bacon, a savoury stack with bacon and cheddar where this one has cream and jam. If you want something dessert-like without pancakes, the Crème Brûlée French Toast is 4,600 Ft, on home baked brioche.
What should you know before ordering them in Budapest?
They sit in Hearty Brunch, the first section of our Budapest menu, sixth of its fifteen plates. The name stays in English on both halves of the card.
The price is the same at Basilica on Hercegprímás utca, near St. Stephen’s Basilica, and at Ferenciek tere, at the Váci utca end of the square. Both open 08:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 17:00 at weekends, and both are walk-in only. The walk between them takes about fifteen minutes.