You and your family are sure to love this fantastically moist and delicious zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting. The perfect way to use up your summer produce! This tasty cake is gluten free and vegan, but you’d never know it!
Gardening season will be upon us soon. I hope that we will have lots of fresh produce coming from our garden. One thing we can usually count on is zucchini. If we plant it, we usually wind up with a fair amount. Thank goodness I love to bake with zucchini! We enjoy chocolate zucchini muffins, cupcakes, and even cookies.
The other veggie we usually have a lot of is tomatoes. If we forget to pick them for a couple of days it quickly gets out of control. We always like to make some homemade tomato sauce or oven dried tomatoes.
If you’re stuck with a lot of zucchini, never fear, you can always make this cake…this amazingly moist and flavorful zucchini cake with dairy free cream cheese frosting. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?
Ingredient Notes
- Vegan Buttery Spread – We like Earth Balance Soy Free Vegan Buttery Spread. It works very well for baking.
- Dairy Free Cream Cheese – We use Daiya brand cream cheese alternative. If you’re not dairy free, of course you can use regular butter and cream cheese. I was very happy with how this cream cheese frosting turned out with the Daiya brand cream cheese – I don’t think people even noticed it was dairy free. And if frosting isn’t your cup of tea, this zucchini cake is also very good plain.
- Sugar – I used both organic cane sugar and coconut sugar in this recipe. You can also use brown sugar, that would work well. If you prefer to use all coconut sugar instead, you can do that. The color of the cake may be just slightly darker, but that’s okay.
- Zucchini – I like to use fresh zucchini for baking, but you can freeze it if you like. Just shred it, squeeze out any excess liquid, and freeze it in a freezer bag. It should stay fresh for about three months. When you want to use it in baking, just thaw it out and squeeze out any liquid again.
Gluten Free Option
This cake can be made with gluten free flour, I have done it that way before. I needed to make a cake for some events a couple of weeks ago, so I was able to make this twice. I did it once with white spelt flour, and once with a gluten free flour blend. It turned out beautifully both times. I used slightly less zucchini when I made it with the gluten free flour because I could tell the batter was going to be too wet.
If you need this to be gluten free, use gluten free flour, like my homemade gluten free flour blend. Spelt flour is NOT gluten free.
Spelt flour is made from spelt, an ancient grain. It is related to wheat, and it does contain gluten.
Storage/Freezing
Store leftover cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It should stay fresh for about 3-4 days. You can also freeze this cake before it is frosted. Just wrap it well in plastic wrap and then foil. I don’t recommend freezing a frosted cake, the texture may not be the greatest.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Recipe
Zucchini Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Ingredients
- 2 cups white spelt flour *You can use all purpose flour or gluten free flour blend
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- â…“ teaspoon ginger
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup coconut sugar brown sugar is okay
- â…“ cup canola oil or melted vegan buttery spread
- 3 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup grated zucchini about 1.5 small zucchini, if using GF flour, use ¾ cup zucchini
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- ⅜ cup water
For the frosting:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4 ounces Daiya brand vegan cream cheese softened
- 4 Tablespoons buttery spread softened
- cinnamon sugar on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the grated zucchini, unsweetened applesauce, canola oil, water, vanilla extract, and vinegar. Stir well.
- Add the sugars and stir to combine. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. Mix well.
- Pour batter into an 8×8 inch square pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-3 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let cake cool completely, then make frosting.
- In a mixing bowl whip the Daiya cream cheese and the vegan buttery spread. Sift in the powdered sugar. Mix until very smooth.
- Frost the cooled cake and then dust with cinnamon sugar. Store leftover cake in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published in September 2015. It has been updated.
Savannah
Hello, has anyone tried this with a gluten-free flour blend? If so, how did it turn out and what mix can I use? Almost every cake I have ever made gluten free and vegan has turned out very dense and gummy, even when I follow directions exactly. I suspect it is my flour blend. Thanks everyone for your help!!!
Kelly Roenicke
Yes, I make this with my homemade GF blend, and I used to use King Arthur when that was safe for us. We don’t use that brand anymore though. You can find my blend on my site!
kathy
Hi Kelli….question…..do you leave the skin on the zucchini or do you peel it first?
Kelly Roenicke
Leave the skin on, it will not taste weird or anything!
Kathy
Yummy. :) Can you use a different oil other than Canola?
Kelly Roenicke
Yes, any oil that works for your diet should be fine here!
Flo
I made this for my office & everybody loved it – even the non-vegan, non-gluten free people! Great recipe. 👌
Michelle
The batter is thick unlike a box cake mix. Just put it in the oven. Hopefully it turns out…..
Kelly Roenicke
I hope it turned out for you!
maysie bye
Ace cake I make a variation of it for a local cafe. Lush ?
Kelly Roenicke
So glad it worked for you! :)
Cammi Carriere
Not sure you will get this, i want to make this recipe for sons birthday. Is it possible to use less sugar?
Kelly Roenicke
You can use less – I don’t know how sweet your family likes things, but I would say you could reduce the sugar by 25%.
Fiona Saluk
OOoohh love a good spice cake to start off fall! I just made a sweet potato one but I definitely need to try your zucchini one! Thanks for sharing
Kelly Roenicke
Hope you love it! Sweet potato cake sounds yummy!
fashion fair
when are you supposed to put the water in?
Kelly
With the other wet ingredients, I will edit the recipe to indicate that. Thank you!
Kristine | Kristine's Kitchen
I love these photos, Kelly! This cake looks so moist and that cream cheese frosting is the perfect finishing touch!
Kelly
Thank you, Kristine!
Natalie @ Tastes Lovely
I thought our zucchini plant was done for the season, but I went out this weekend and found one last zucchini that was over 12″! I can use it to make this cake, which looks amazing Kelly!
Sarah@Whole and Heavenly Oven
Oh gosh, that glaaaze! And I’m seriously obsessing over how moist this cake looks—totally craving this for breakfast right now!
Sarah | Well and Full
I actually have a lone zucchini in my fridge that I just don’t know what to do with… This recipe is calling my name right now!!
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice
Oh these cake looks gorgeous, Kelly! I love the spices in here! And that cream cheese frosting sounds like the perfect touch!
whiskandshout
This cake looks totally delish :) Pinning!
Strength and Sunshine
I failed this summer and didn’t make zucchini bread or cake! Ah! I guess there’s still time though ;)