Zucchini Cake Recipe

This Zucchini Cake recipe with cream cheese frosting is the perfect way to eat your veggies! It’s a delicious spice cake stuffed with zucchini and topped with a thick cream cheese frosting. Love zucchini recipes? You have to try my Zucchini Brownies, Chocolate Zucchini Cake, and Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Cake!

Zucchini Cake Recipe

I adore this cake! It’s like a tender spice cake. You would never know there’s zucchini in this cake if it wasn’t for the green bits. I know some people aren’t anxious to eat a cake with zucchini in it, but this is a must-try. (Don’t worry if that’s you, my husband is the same way!)

Why add zucchini in a cake? Well, it’s like carrot cake or banana bread. The zucchini adds moisture to the cake. It keeps the cake soft and tender. Plus, have you ever grown zucchini in your garden? It’s so hard to keep up with. You can eat it for 2 weeks straight and still have a basket of zucchini to pick and eat. Baking it into some cake or bars is another way to use it up!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese frosting can be a little tricky. Apparently, it can get runny or soupy. Has that happened to anyone? It’s true, it can get quite soft. I think there are a couple of tricks to this, but first I should say that I haven’t actually dealt with it being too soupy.

1. Your butter could be too soft. That’s a thing. If the butter has started out a soupy mess it’s very possible the frosting will be too.
2. You didn’t add enough powdered sugar to thicken it up.
3. You added too much milk or cream.

But it can be fixed. I think we can troubleshoot this pretty quickly. If your butter was too soft, place the frosting in the fridge to let the butter firm up some. If you added too much milk or cream, add a little more powdered sugar. This will make your frosting sweeter so don’t go overboard with it.

I should mention that I feel pretty confident that my cream cheese frosting isn’t going to give you any problems. It’s very well tested since it’s one of my go-to recipes. I’ve even piped it on cupcakes with a straight tip and it held up.

4.88 from 8 votes

Zucchini Cake

Prep Time 35 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 35 minutes mins

This cinnamon zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting tastes like a tender spice cake. It has plenty of zucchini to keep the cake moist and cinnamon for flavor! It's topped with a thick cream cheese frosting.

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Ingredients

Cake

• ▢ 3 cups zucchini grated
• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 cup light brown sugar packed
• ▢ 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• ▢ 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• ▢ 4 eggs
• ▢ 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ▢ 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 2 tsp. baking soda
• ▢ 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• ▢ 1 tsp. salt

Frosting

• ▢ 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• ▢ 1/2 cup (1 stick or 113g) butter, room temperature
• ▢ 2 cups (250g) confectioners' sugar
• ▢ 1 1/2 tablespoons milk
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. 
• Grate about 2 medium zucchini to make 3 cups. Don't squeeze out the zucchini juice. 
• Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Stir to combine. 
• Add the vegetable oil and mix until incorporated. 
• Add in the vanilla and the eggs one at a time. Whisk until combined and then add the next until all of the eggs have been incorporated. 
• In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until incorporated. 
• Combine the dry ingredients with the wet and beat with a hand mixer until combined. 
• Add the zucchini and fold in with a spatula. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. 
• Place in the oven and let it bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour 5 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with moist crumbs. 
• Remove from the oven and let cool completely. 

Frosting

• In a large mixing bowl, add the cream cheese. Beat with a hand mixer on medium until creamy. 
• Add the butter and beat on medium until combined. 
• Add the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla and beat on low until the sugar is mostly worked in. Turn the mixer to medium and finish beating the confectioners' sugar into the frosting. 
• Spread the frosting on top of the cooled cake using an offset spatula.

Video

Course: Dessert

Keyword: zucchini cake

Servings: 15 people

Author: Miranda

Did you make this recipe?

Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.

Check out some of my other perfect Zucchini Recipes!

Zucchini Brownies {VIDEO}

Chocolate Zucchini Cake {VIDEO}

White Zucchini Cake {VIDEO}

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Cake  {VIDEO}

Thank you to Miranda from Cookie Dough & Oven Mitt for this fantastic recipe!