I love nutritious foods, but tbh my first love is dessert. I’ve had a sweet tooth since the moment I could pick up a fork.
I typically get mad at healthy dessert recipes because I don’t believe we should have to make sacrifices like that. We all know it’s not as good, and most often you’re left still wanting the real thing, or overeating the “healthy” thing (100 calorie packs of oreo crisps, anyone?).
With this cake, I promise you get the best of both worlds. I’d call this a healthy(ish) dessert recipe. The cake is made with no refined sugar (I use maple syrup, and less of it than a traditional cake recipe), no butter (I like oil for most cakes anyway), some whole wheat flour (fiber!), and 3 full cups of grated zucchini.
It’s also topped with a mound of regular chocolate buttercream. Buttercream is non-negotiable in my opinion. This cake is not very sweet on its own, so it needs buttercream and the chocolate chips in the recipe to feel like you’re eating cake. I have based all my frosting recipes (and inspiration) from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
I have made this cake twice in the last couple months for birthdays. People can not believe there is so much zucchini in here! It comes out fudgy and rich. Definitely a must-have for dark chocolate lovers like myself!
Healthy(ish) Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- 1 9" cake pans
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips Mini, dark, milk, whatever you like!
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups grated zucchini I use two zucchini that are on the larger side of medium, and I get about 3 cups. Use leftovers in salad, eggs, pasta, etc!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350, and grease two 9" cake pans. Set pans aside while oven heats up and you prepare the cake batter.
- Combine dry ingredients (through chocolate chips) in a large bowl. You'll be adding wet ingredients into this, so choose a bowl big enough you can mix it all together. Whisk or stir ingredients until they're all evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
- Combine wet ingredients in a separate, smaller bowl (oil through eggs). Mix well and then pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Make sure you collect everything from the bowl! Stir together until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Shred the zucchini using a grater, like you would for carrot cake. This takes about two medium/large zucchini. I'd always buy bigger ones and have leftover shreds rather than not have enough! Stir in the zucchini to the mixture.
- Divide mixture evenly among the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 28-32 minutes. Baking times can vary with different ovens, so check at 28 minutes. Mine takes about 30! A knife inserted into the center should come out clean (some crumbs, not batter on the knife).
- Once cooled, frost with 'Favorite Chocolate Buttercream' from Sally's Baking Addiction (https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/favorite-chocolate-buttercream/#tasty-recipes-68044)