Carrot cake with cinnamon crumble
Serves: 10
Prep time: 35 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Ant Duncan
Carrot cake with cinnamon crumble
Recipe by Sarah Cook
Slices of this loaf cake are lovely served warm with Greek yogurt for a quick pud, but equally good cold with a cuppa
Serves: 10
Prep time: 35 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
466Kcal
Fat
22gr
Saturates
7gr
Carbs
57gr
Sugars
32gr
Fibre
2gr
Protein
8gr
Salt
0.4gr
Sarah Cook
Sarah, a former food editor, has now been writing and styling recipes for over 10 years. Born in NZ, to Irish-English immigrants, and married to a Polish-Scot, her food is as diverse as her family, with a particular passion for baking mash-ups.
Sarah Cook
Sarah, a former food editor, has now been writing and styling recipes for over 10 years. Born in NZ, to Irish-English immigrants, and married to a Polish-Scot, her food is as diverse as her family, with a particular passion for baking mash-ups.
Ingredients
- zest and juice of 1 small orange
- 100ml sunflower or light rapeseed oil, plus extra for greasing
- 2 large eggs
- 125g light brown sugar
- 85g wholemeal plain flour
- 85g plain flour
- 2 tsp ground mixed spice
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 125g coarsely grated carrot
- 75g mixed nuts (we used pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts), roughly chopped
- 50g icing sugar, sifted
For the crumble top
- 85g light brown sugar
- 50g granulated or demerara sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon, plus a pinch
- 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 150g plain flour
- 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
Step by step
Get ahead
This will last up to a week in an airtight container, but is best eaten within 3 days.
- Heat the oven to 170°C, fan 150°C, gas 3. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper, leaving some overhang.
- Start with the crumble top. Mix the sugars and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon with the melted butter, then stir in the flour and pumpkin seeds with a fork. The mixture should look clumpy rather than crumbly.
- For the cake batter, set aside 1 tablespoon of the orange juice for icing. Whisk together the oil and eggs in a jug, then mix the sugar, flours, spices, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in a large mixing bowl, with a good pinch of salt. Pour in the wet ingredients and stir to a smooth batter, then stir through the carrot, remaining orange juice, zest and nuts. Scrape into the prepared tin, then crumble the topping mixture over the top.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour-1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean with only slightly wet crumbs – check carefully as the crumble top might ‘clean off’ any wet batter. If it’s not ready, check again at 5-minute intervals.
- Cool the cake in the tin, then carefully lift out, using the lining paper to help you. Mix the icing sugar with enough of the reserved orange juice and a pinch more cinnamon to give a drizzly icing. Drizzle over the cake and leave to set.
