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Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake…Tart?

By July 7, 2010March 24th, 2014Desserts, Food, Kitchen, Recipes, Vegan

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake

As I mentioned earlier today, I scored a massive zucchini from one of our research farms (I’m a web developer for a  Plant Sciences department). I’ve never seen such a huge zucchini, have you? With Neil and I already being sparse eaters, and Neil hating the taste of zucchini on its own (brat!), I had to find a way — or realistically multiple ways — to use this awesome veggie without it tasting like — itself. My mind always prioritizes dessert first, so I adapted my recipe for vegan chocolate banana cake for the addition of zucchini. The result was less cake-like and more tart, so I added a yummy almond and brown sugar topping.

It’s so good!

I’m not normally a huge fan of zucchini bread, I tend to think it needs something sweet like chocolate in order to be palatable. I’ve been nom’ing this like crazy. It’s almost embarrassing. Sneaking bites for breakfast, in the middle of the night, and taking it to work for a snack. I should add that I doubled the recipe (we were originally supposed to go to two barbecues) and got 2 cakes and a loaf of bread, so I had more than plenty leftover through no fault of my own. My poor diet never seems to catch a break! Luckily this is vegan and as healthy as cake can be, full of not only zucchini but bananas and applesauce as well. You’ll also notice the addition of a food processor to our kitchen inventory. Neil had some credit card reward points to use up and surprised me with it last week!

Ingredients:

2 cups Whole wheat flour
½ cup Cocoa powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda
½ teaspoon Baking powder
¼ teaspoon Salt
¼ cup Canola oil
¼ cup Unsweetened applesauce
½ cup Granulated sugar
½ cup Light brown sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Instant coffee powder
1 ½ bananas (to replace 3 eggs)
4 Tablespoons Water
¼ cup Soy Milk
2 cups Zucchini, grated
1 cup vegan dark chocolate chips

For Topping:
3 Tablespoons Light brown sugar
½ cup Slivered Almonds, chopped

Directions:

DSC_0709

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake

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Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake

  1. 1. Preheat oven to 360 F. Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan.
  2. 2. In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
  3. 3. Mash the bananas. Once mashed, add the water and mix together.
  4. 4. In a medium combine oil, applesauce, sugars, vanilla extract and coffee powder. Stir or beat with mixer for 3-5 minutes.
  5. 5. Now add the banana + water and mix. Add milk and beat until well combined.
  6. 6. Set aside half a cup of the flour mixture, add slowly the remaining flour to the wet ingredients, while mixing it in at a low speed. Combine the grated zucchini, chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of flour. Add this to the batter and mix it well. The batter will be very thick, so no worries.
  7. 7. Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan and smooth it out using a spatula.
  8. 8. Mix brown sugar and almonds for the toping and spread evenly over the batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes.

If anything, you can probably ditch the oil. The zucchini, bananas, and applesauce are MORE than enough moisture. If you’re froggy, caramelizing the brown sugar and almonds on the stove top and adding after the cake bakes will probably work well also. If you can believe it, I still have a third of this monster zucchini left, so stay tuned!

19 Comments

  • Christa says:

    Yum! I am going to have to try this!

  • Lauren says:

    Wow… that cake looks absolutely delicious! I love how healthy it is :).

  • Zucchini chocolate cake was one of only 2 ways I liked zucchini as a kid. The other way? Zucchini bread.

    This looks delicious.

  • Ann says:

    I plan on making this tomorrow! It looks amazing. I am a new vegan (5 months) and am always looking for recipes. Thanks for sharing.

  • Jessica says:

    Thanks for the great comments! I hope you give it a try. I’m not a full vegan obviously, but I love eating healthy and have found vegan baking to be very enjoyable!

  • Theodore says:

    I made this earlier today and it turned out amazing! I brought it to a picnic and it was loved by everyone. The only problem I had was that the brown sugar didn’t caramelize in the oven so I might try the stove top suggestion next time. Thanks Jessica!

    p.s. Congrats on the food processor!

  • Jessica says:

    Yeah, my brown sugar didn’t fully caramelize so definitely making it policy to not rely on the oven for next time. Glad it was a hit! And thanks, I’ve been waiting for a food processor for a loooong time!

  • Theodore says:

    I know what you mean, I’ve been saving up to get a ravioli maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. Appliances are the best!

  • mrstrace says:

    This was really, really good. I left out the oil and used regular brewed coffee in place of the 4 Tbsp water. Came out absolutely delicious. Cut into 40 little squares, they’ll fit just right into mini muffin cup liners for individual bite-size treats. Thank you!!

  • Jessica says:

    I’m definitely going to try brewed coffee next time, i think it will give it a richer flavor, and who can say no to that?

  • Mmmmmmmm, looks devine! I always bypass Zucchini Bread recipes because it’s just never appealed to me – but I love the sound of it mixed with Banana & Chocolate! Will give this one a go, but am going to try substituting it with Spelt…Thanks 🙂

  • kathy says:

    Chocolate n veg – love it. Beautiful photos. I hope you will submit this recipe to my new “vegan finds” website:

    http://www.FindingVegan.com

    ~Kathy

  • kristina says:

    This is the second time I’ve made this. Great recipe!

  • Karen says:

    Thank you so much for this recipe!!! it was delicious and real easy to make. I am very clumsy and the kitchen and usually need to try more than once to get it right but not this time… got it right and yummy on my first try. Thank you thank you!!!

  • marsha says:

    Was a big hit at our restaurant on MEATLESS MONDAY!! Substituted Coconut oil & only used 1 tablespoon. Thanks!