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This zucchini chocolate cake is super moist, fudgy, and has a tender crumb. Packed with rich chocolate flavor, it uses wholesome and simple ingredients.
Want more zucchini dessert recipes? Try my healthy zucchini muffins, healthy zucchini bread, and zucchini brownies next.
It’s no secret I love to add zucchini to my desserts, but none are as impressive as my chocolate zucchini cake recipe. It looks like any good cake out there, but packs in some sneaky ingredients that make it almost healthy enough for breakfast!
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- Hidden nutrients! Adding zucchini to a chocolate cake is a sneaky way to hide some greens, and it adds extra moisture to the cake (and fiber, too!).
- No zucchini taste. Seriously, and you won’t be able to see it, either!
- Perfect texture. The texture is super moist, with a tender crumb.
- No eggs, butter, or oil. This uses pantry staples, so you have no excuses not to make it.
★★★★★ REVIEW
“Great! All of my 9 guests (3 needed gluten-free) gave this rave review. Thank you!” – Ali
Ingredients needed
- Milk and vinegar. Mixed and set for 5 minutes to create a mock buttermilk. I used unsweetened almond milk but any milk works.
- Oat flour. A wheat-free alternative to traditional white or wheat flour. Skip the store-bought and packaged options and make my homemade oat flour.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder. Dutch process cocoa powder. For a richer flavor, you can use dark cocoa powder.
- Arrowroot powder. Holds the cake together and helps achieve a moist crumb.
- Baking powder and soda. Both leavening agents are used to give the cake structure and stability.
- Unsweetened applesauce. Helps keep the cake moist while adding minimal calories and fat.
- Coconut sugar OR light brown sugar. Either sugar works. Avoid using white sugar or unrefined sugar as it can affect how moist the cake ends up being.
- Shredded zucchini. With most of the moisture removed.
- Salt. A pinch of salt to balance out the sweet ingredients.
- Vanilla extract. A must for any good cake recipe.
- Chocolate frosting. Not optional! I used my famous 2 ingredient frosting but any frosting works, including a cream cheese frosting.
How to make a zucchini chocolate cake
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Prep. Line and grease two 8-inch cake pans and mix the milk and vinegar to curdle.
Step 2- Make the cake batter. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, applesauce, and sugar. Combine the two until just combined.
Step 3- Bake. Pour the batter amongst the two cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out mostly clean.
Step 4- Frost. Let the cakes cool completely before frosting, slicing, and serving.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Do not over-bake the cake, as it will continue to bake as it is cooling down. Unlike a traditional chocolate cake, you’ll need to be super careful, as oat flour can dry out goods easily.
- Squeeze out some of the moisture from the zucchini, but not all of it. Some of the moisture helps keep the cake moist and soft. I like to let them sit on some paper towel.
- Brown sugar or coconut sugar is necessary to balance out the other ingredients. If you want to use a sugar-free substitute, you’ll need to add fat to it.
- Intensify the chocolate flavor by adding some chocolate chips throughout.
Variations
- For a richer cake, swap out half the applesauce with olive oil, butter, or vegetable oil.
- Swap out the oat flour for either all-purpose flour or wholewheat flour.
- For a low carb cake, replace the oat flour with blanched almond flour, use allulose as the sweetener, and swap out the applesauce for full-fat yogurt.
- Swap out the applesauce for either plain yogurt or sour cream.
- To cut out the gluten, use gluten-free oat flour.
- Make a bundt cake by baking the batter in a bundt pan.
Storage instructions
- To store: Store at room temperature, covered, for up to three days. If you’d like the cake to keep longer, Place slices of the cake in a sealable container and store it in the fridge.
- To freeze: Place the baked, cooled, and frosted cake in an airtight container and store it in the freezer.
Frequently Asked Questions
This cake has no eggs or dairy in it, so is suitable for those following a vegan diet.
There is no need to peel the zucchini before grating or shredding it.
More chocolate cake recipes to try
- Keto chocolate cake
- Almond flour chocolate cake
- Flourless chocolate cake
- Death by chocolate cake
- Healthy chocolate cake
Zucchini Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups milk any milk works
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 3 cups oat flour
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup zucchini shredded
- 1 cup chocolate frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans and set aside.
- Add the milk and vinegar in a bowl and whisk together. Let it sit to curdle.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the oat flour, cocoa powder, arrowroot powder, baking powder, and baking soda and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk mix, brown sugar, and applesauce. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until combined. Fold through the zucchini.
- Distribute the batter amongst the two cake pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer come out clean.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool completely. Once cool, frost them, layer them then slice and serve.
What can u substitute the arrowroot flower with?
Try cornstarch
why do you advertise this as vegan when obviously it’s not, having 3 eggs?
Because it is very clearly written in the body of the post. The vegan option. (and also clearly stated in the recipe card).
Thousands of my vegan followers have made this cake, enjoy.
Hey just pointing out that these are not vegan as mentioned – eggs?
Feel free to read the body of the post that has the clearly written out vegan version 🙂
The recipe is called “ Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Cake (Keto AND vegan!)”, how can it be vegan if there are 3 large eggs on the list of ingredients?
Check out the body of the post, vegan option written out there
I’m just getting back to the gluten/sugar free (keto) way of eating, and must admit, it was a shock to the taste buds! LOL I have a plethora of zucchini and figured this was the best way to get my feet wet – knowing it should be moist and/or dense due to coconut flour. IMO, coconut flour baked goods are always best from the 2nd day forward. The item needs time for all those liquids and flavors to kind of come together. Plus, as time goes on, it also becomes more dense! But back to the recipe. (next morning after baking) It’s very chocolatey (in a very good way), not as sweet as you might think it would be and actually came out perfect! I only made 1 layer and cut into squares. Mainly because I only have 1 6″ cake pan. It did not have a lot of “rise” to it, but, again, it’s also dense and not expecting “rise” with coconut flour. I will definitely make it again and do layers for a cake. Back to my taste bud shock. Even though I’ve tried to limit my sugar intake during my drunken fall of the wagon over the last few years, I’ve still gotten more used to it than I had hoped. This is not sweet like the crappy sugar/flour cakes you are sued to. But, this too shall pass and the lower sweet expectations will become my normal again. Very moist though – and that’s a huge win. Not easy to accomplish moist in GFSF recipes. I’ll be back for more recipes. Thank you for all your hard work in developing these recipes!
Amazingly yummy!
I made these as zucchini lemon nut muffins. I substituted rice flour for the cocoa powder. Cut the sweetener in half and added a teaspoon of lemon extract and some chopped pecans. Baked for 20 min in a muffin tin. They are delicious
Do you think coconut sugar would work as the sweetener? Can’t wait to try this!
of course 🙂
Yassss, yum, made for five year old bday. Tick from everyone. Tasty as!
Thanks for the feedback, Dean! Happy birthday to the little one!
You haven’t included any quantities in the ingredients list so this recipe is useless!
maybe try scrolling down and you’ll see a very evident recipe card.
This cake is AMAZING! I substituted monk fruit sweetener for honey. I also doubled the recipe b/c I used a larger pan. Unfortunately it was still a one layer cake. I recommend everyone to try this cake. I look forward to trying variations of the cake as well.
Thank you, Shani 🙂
hi i really like the recipe, i was wondering if i wanna do it in a 4 inch pan how the measurements change…
I haven’t tried, feel free to experiment and see!
1/4 c zucc is def not 1 med zucc. Please clarify
It sure does here.
Hola, a qué tipo de calabacín se refiere la receta. No puedo usar ningún tipo de levadura, pero sí el polvo de hornear, estaría bien si le pongo polvo de hornear.- Saludos
I just made this AGAIN tonight. Soooo delicious! I am making yet another to take to my parent’s house tomorrow for Xmas since my mom is gluten free and dairy free. Only change that I made was adding vanilla extract and Hu chocolate chunks! Great recipe!