Easy Zucchini Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
I’ve done it, I’ve finally created a recipe with vegetables that my family is enthusiastic about eating! We are all familiar with kids examining everything we put in front of them to see if there is something resembling even a spec of vegetables. Guess what?! They don’t care!!
I’ll tell you why, because this zucchini cake is AMAZING! I make it several times a year during the end of summer season and it’s a hit with family and friends. Here is why everyone loves it:
- the texture is incredibly soft, moist, and tender.
- the flavor is fresh, bright, and beautifully balanced. Zucchini itself is so mild in flavor, the cake takes on the flavors of the spices, a hint of orange, and the sweetness and all are perfectly balanced.
- this cake is dairy free! Not the frosting through, but I will tell you below how to make this frosting dairy free.
- this is a sheet cake, which means super easy to make and all you have to do once baked, is spread the frosting on it.
- my cream cheese frosting is often my go-to for baked treats. It’s smooth, creamy, and most importantly not too sweet! What I did for this cake, is match the spices in the cake with the spiced in the frosting for the best overall experience.
Ingredient Notes And Substitutions
Zucchini – you will been 2 zucchini that are about small to medium in size, together weighing 14-16 oz. You can also use previously frozen grated zucchini just thaw it first in the refrigerator. You may need to squeeze out some extra liquids accumulated during freezing and thawing. Don’t squeeze too much, just a little.
Oil – use a neutral tasting oil like vegetable oil, canola oil, or avocado oil. My personal favorite is avocado oil.
Cream Cheese – make sure to use a block of cream cheese NOT cream cheese spread!
AP Flour – this is simple and easy cake, all purpose flour works very well. If you need to, this recipe works very well when swapping regular AP flour for gluten free flour. I recommend using 1:1 all purpose gluten free flour for the best texture.
Dairy free frosting substitution – of course, to make the cream cheese frosting dairy free, you will need to use plan based butter (not spread) and plant based cream cheese. Cream cheese that is plant based usually only comes as a spread and it’s a little softer than the block. So your frosting will be slightly softer. It will still spread great on the cake but won’t stand up well to piping.
How To Make Zucchini Cake
The beauty of this cake is the simplicity! You just need to grate zucchini and whist it with sugars and liquid ingredients. Then, whisk in the dry ingredients and that’s your batter! Spread everything in the greased aluminum baking pan and bake at 350℉ for 35-40 minutes.
When the cake is cooled and you’re ready for frosting, just beat the cream cheese and butter until light and soft. Stir in powdered sugar and spices and beat it some more until light and fluffy. That’s it! Frost the cake and step aways because it’s fair game now.
Variations and Additions To Consider
Nuts: this is a great cake to add some nuts to! You can use a cup of chopped walnuts or pecans and mix it right into the batter. Adding some on top is also a great option.
Fruit: if you want to add fresh fruit, I recommend apples, 1 or 2 depending on size. Peel, core and dice the apple. Make sure to pat it dry with a paper towel after you dice it and then fold it into the prepared cake batter.
Dried fruit: raising would be a nice addition here, I recommend golden raisins.
Chocolate chips: go for it! Add 1- 1 1/4 cup of any chocolate chips right into the batter.
More spice! – if you like fall spice, this is a great opportunity to bump up the flavor. You can increase the existing spices or even add a little ground allspice and/or cloves. Be careful, allspice and cloves are strong, so start with 1/4 tsp.
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Zucchini Cake Recipe
Equipment
- 9×13 aluminum baking pan
- measuring cups, dry and liquid
- box grater
- whisk
- large mixing bowl
- hand held or standing mixer
Ingredients
Zucchini Cake
- 14-16 oz zucchini 2 medium to small zucchinis
- 3/4 cup vegetable or avocado oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 orange – zest only
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp salt
Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese block, softened
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- pinch salt
Instructions
Before Starting:
- About 30-45 minutes before starting to cook, pull out your eggs so they warm up a little. You will also want to pull out the cream cheese and butter about an hour before making the frosting.
- Preheat the oven 350℉ and grease a 9×13 aluminum baking pan. Expert tip: aluminum is usually the best choice for baking because it's an excellent heat conductor, it baked evenly and takes less time.
Making The Cake:
- Wash zucchini, pat it dry, and use a large grate on a box grater to grate the zucchini right into a large mixing bowl. No need to peel it!
- Add both sugars, oil, eggs, orange zest, and vanilla into the bowl with zucchini. Whisk everything until smooth and combined.
- Add your dry ingredients into the bowl and mix everything until just smooth and combined. Make sure it is mixed well but don't over-mix.
- Transfer the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and make sure it's spread evenly. Tap the pan a few times on the counter to ensure the batter is spread as evenly as possible.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes.Ways to tell if it's done: if you touch the center of the cake, it will feel firm with no squishy spots. Although, best and most accurate way to tell is to take internal temperature. Quick breads, cakes, and muffins internal temperature when done is 200℉-205℉.
- Once baked, take the cake out of the oven and let it rest about 10-15 minutes on the counter. To loosen the cake before taking it out, hold the pan at about 45° angle and tap the side edges on the counter. This will help loosen the cake so you can take it out of the pan.
- To take the the cake out of the pan, cover the pan with a cooling wire rack and gently flip. The cake should transfer to the wire rack. To flip the cake on the bottom side, simply cover it with another wire rack and carefully flip. Expert tip: if the cake is not easily coming out, you can gently lift it away from the pan using a spatula. Go around the edges, sliding the spatula under and gently lifting. This will loosed it if it's a little more stuck to the pan than usual.
- COOL the cake for at least 2 hours. Do NOT try to frost warm cake or the frosting will melt. Cake should be at room temperature or cooler before frosting.
Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting:
- You can use stand up mixer or hand-held mixer for this recipe. Beat softened butter and cream cheese together, on medium-high speed, until smooth. Beat it for a 2-3 minutes.
- Lower the speed to low and mix in powdered sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, and vanilla extract. Turn the speed back up to medium-high and beat for another minute or two, until the frosting is light, smooth, and fluffy.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake and voilà!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Storing Tips For This Cake
Frosted: you can keep frosted cake on the counter for up to 4 hours but then you will need to refrigerate it. Refrigerate in an air-tight container for up to 5 days. It’s good to serve cold or let it warm up on the counter for 30 minutes.
Unfrosted: unfrosted can is okay to store at room temperature for 1-2 days. Make sure to keep it covered air-tight to prevent drying out. If you live in a humid climate though, the shelf life at room temperature is much less, about a day.
Freezing: it’s easy to freeze baked zucchini cake but freeze unfrosted. (Cream cheese frosting is not great thawed.) Once the cake is cooled, wrap it in 2 layers of plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil. Make sure it’s air-tight, label, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw it the refrigerator.
Try More Recipes For Baking With Zucchini
My kid also go crazy for my chocolate zucchini muffins! Shhh, they still don’t know there is zucchini in it!
This zucchini bread with crumb topping is a seasonal favorite here too, so soft and the texture of crumbs topping is great with moist bread.
I have a couple more sheet cakes as well that are easy and wonderful like hummingbird cake, eggnog cake, and lemon banana cake.
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Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Clean options, moist and decadent plus the cream cheese frosting is amazing! Pro tip: everything I’ve tried has been incredible! ✌️😁
I could literally live on this alone, I think. I love zucchini breads, muffins, and cakes, always have. This. This is a zucchini lovers DREAM!