Chocolate Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray or softened butter. Line with parchment paper, so the paper goes up the two short sides of the pan. Set aside.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and whisk long enough to insure the leavening is evenly distributed. Set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the sugars and oil and whisk vigorously. Add the yolk and eggs, one at a time, gently whisking after each addition. Add the buttermilk and vanilla and whisk again. Add the melted chocolate and whisk a final time.

Add the flour mixture to the egg and sugar mixture, and with a rubber spatula, gently fold the dry into the wet, until a few streaks of flour remain. Add the carrots and fold again, until the carrots are completely incorporated. Let the cake batter rest for 15 minutes. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the cake after 15, and checking it with a cake tester/toothpick after 35. the tester should have a few moist crumbs on it, but nothing too wet.

While the cake bakes, make the whipped cream.

Refrigerate the bowl of a stand mixer and the whisk attachment (or a medium metal bowl and beaters from a hand mixer) until quite cold, about 15 minutes.

Once chilled, remove the bowl and whisk from the refrigerator, add the cream cheese, and whip it on medium speed until smooth. Add the cream and continue to whip on medium speed until the cream is incorporated.

Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon and, on medium-high speed, whip the cream mixture until it holds stiff peaks that stand upright when the whisk is raised. Use it immediately, or refrigerate until ready to use.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it rest in its pan on a cooling rack for about 20 minutes or so, or until the cake is still warm, but you can easily hold the pan without burning yourself. Invert the cake onto the cooling rack and let the cake cool completely. Serve slices spread with cinnamon cream cheese whipped cream.