Gah! Where do I even begin? My love for zucchini, meets my love for chocolate, in this fluffy, hearty, decadent ‘cake’! This recipe is everything you want for a nourishing sweet treat – especially when zucchinis are in season (and wildly prolific in the garden)! This cake is loaded with oats, antioxidant rich cacao, and the perfect amount of sweetness from maple syrup and raw cane sugar.
This recipe can easily be made gluten free, is dairy free, way lower in sugar than most cakes – and truly tastes absolutely incredible!
I highly recommend making this recipe in an 8 x 8 cake pan, however you could make it into muffins, loaf, or any other shape your heart desires!
I find a piece of this is perfect on it’s own, but can also be lovely drizzled with a touch or peanut butter, hazelnut butter, or even some extra melted chocolate on top – the sky is the limit!


Ingredients
Dry
– 1.5 cup whole rolled oats
– 1/2 cup unrefined white flour
(or another 1/2 cup whole oats, ground into a flour) *See Note
– 1/2 cup raw cacao powder
– 2 tsp baking powder
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp sea salt
Wet
– 2 pasture raised eggs
– 1 ripe banana or 1/3 cup apple sauce
– 1/3 cup raw honey or maple syrup
– 1/3 cup raw cane sugar or coconut sugar
– 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
– 1 cup grated zucchini (juices squeezed out well to absorb some of the moisture)
Additional
– 1/2 cup (or more) dairy free chocolate chips – I love prana dark chocolate chunks!
– 1 Tbsp. hemp hearts
*NOTE: using the white flour will make the loaf a touch fluffier and make it rise more, however if you want to keep it fully free of refined flours and gluten, using oats can work well too!
Instructions
– Preheat oven to 330oF (convection)
– Grind oats in a blender until you reach a flour like consistency (if using all oats and no white flour, be sure to blend 2 cups, otherwise blend the 1.5 cups)
– Add all other dry ingredients including ground oats to a large bowl and mix well
– In a blender, add all wet ingredients, except for the zucchini and blend on low until well incorporated
– Add the wet ingredients from the blender to the dry ingredients bowl and mix until just combined
– Grate zucchini with a cheese grater and then squeeze out with a towel to remove some of the excess moisture – you might be surprised how water loaded it is! You don’t need to squeeze out everything so the zucchini is dry – just give it a few good squeezes
– Fold in the grated zucchini and the chocolate chips
– Prepare a 8 x 8 cake pan by lightly coating with coconut oil
– Place batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle hemp hearts on top
– Bake for 25- 35 min (until you can place a butter knife in the centre and it comes out mostly clean – there might be melted chocolate on it, but shouldn’t have wet batter on it!)
– Allow to cool (if you can wait!) for at least 20-30 or so minutes before digging in!
