It’s been summer – kids out of school summer, anyway – for just over a week here and I think my kids have asked for a snack 23095723 times so far. I’m pretty stingy with snacks (one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and we try to keep them pretty healthy) but somehow that doesn’t stop everyone from asking for one every 2 seconds. And not like, can I have a banana, it’s like, can I have chocolate chips? Do we have any cake? Can we have popsicles? Do we have ice cream? (No; no; no; yes, but that’s secret grown up ice cream for after bedtime, SORRYNOTSORRY.) So while moms are allowed to have handfuls of chocolate chips at random times throughout the day, that’s not a habit I want to trickle down to the next generation. (See also: many other habits, including but not limited to never making my bed, hoarding pens, and being so paralyzed by decorating decisions that we’re going on year 4 with a disposable paper blind on our front door.)
ANYWAY. This is a magical flourless double chocolate zucchini cake that’s perfect for a special snack or a totally legit dessert! It’s healthy (mostly veggies and almond butter, y’all), super filling so you don’t need a snack again in 10 minutes, and checks the chocolate chip AND cake craving boxes my kids apparently have on a daily basis. Plus it’s fun for kids to help make because you just dump everything into a bowl and mix – I let my almost-2-year-old help with this and it wasn’t disastrous (unless you call licking the spoon and then stirring a little more disastrous).
I’ve been using these parchment paper sheets for baking lately and not just to line a sheet pan, and it’s pretty glorious to not have to scrub the corners of a cake pan! Oh, and all those zucchini shreds you see in the batter virtually disappear in the finished cake. It’s very sneaky!
The cake is moist, dense, and SUPER chocolatey! You don’t taste zucchini or almond butter, in my opinion, even though those are the main ingredients. It honestly just tastes like chocolate cake, like a fluffy, not-as-sweet brownie. This recipe is based on this flourless chocolate chip zucchini snack cake – I just tweaked a couple of things to add cocoa powder for a double chocolate version. Both are delicious and are huge staples during zucchini season around here!
Can I have a snack? Can I have chocolate chips? Do we have cake? Yes, yes, yes.
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PinIngredients
1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cup shredded zucchini (about 2 small or 1 large; mine was about 10 oz)
1 cup almond butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (regular is fine, too. You can omit or use a brand like Enjoy Life for paleo)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and shred the zucchini. Err on the side of a little extra rather than skimping – I could press mine down to 1-1/2 cup, so it was a loosely packed/piled up 1-3/4 cup.
- Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl until thoroughly combined. There’s no particular order or mixing method – just dump it all in and stir!
- Transfer the batter to a greased (or parchment-lined) 8×8 pan and bake 35-40 minutes or until the cake tests done (a toothpick will come out clean with maybe a few crumbs).
Notes
This recipe is adapted from my flourless chocolate chip zucchini snack cake
This sounds and looks amazing! Can’t wait to test it out myself!
Thanks Mindy! I would love to know what you think if you give it a try!
Just finished making th7s cake! Can’t wait to try it. Smells devine! Thank you!
I hope you love it! Now I want to make one today too! 🙂
This looks great. Can I replace almond butter with peanut butter?
Hi Ling – you know, I haven’t tried it with PB. I think it would work fine – I’m guessing it would have a stronger taste but that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing! 🙂
This looks tasty. I am going to have to try this one of these days. When I have my next sweet craving.
★★★★★
I hope you like them! Thanks Matt!