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Looking for a healthy chocolate treat, aren't you?
Well, keep on reading because this healthy zucchini chocolate cake will blow your socks off. And do you see that luscious looking chocolate frosting? Well it doesn't have ANY refined sugar at all.
Yep yep yep.
Let's get started!
Chocolate Cake That Tastes AMAZING & Doesn't Make you Feel Guilty
It's too long of a title, isn't it? But that's exactly what I wanted to tell you.
This chocolate cake has zucchini in it. YES. That's almost saying that you're having veggies for dessert! Almost, almost 😀
And I bet right now you're trying to see in the photos if you can see some green bits of zucchini in it, right? 😉
This chocolate cake only has 2 tablespoon of fat. Healthy fat in fact, which is coconut oil.
It also doesn't have white flour. We're choosing to use a healthier flour, which is spelt flour. I'm obsessed with spelt flour and have been incorporating it in my healthy recipes.
This cake uses unsweetened cocoa powder, which really intensify the chocolate flavour and it being unsweetened means that you can control the amount of sugar that you use. Not only that, you also decide what type of sweetener to use.
Today we'll be using honey! You can use maple syrup with no problem.
So with all these healthy ingredients, you can shake that guilty feeling when you bite into a slice of this beauty 😉
Luscious Healthy Chocolate Frosting
I know you will not believe me when I tell you that this creamy luscious healthy chocolate frosting is made with just 5 ingredients and none of them is refined sugar.
Well, it's made from sweet potato (YES, I KNOW!), unsweetened cocoa powder, honey and pinch of salt. And oh vanilla extract.
Frosting ingredients don't get simpler and cleaner than that, don't you think?
Ok now your question will be "What?? Won't it taste like mashed sweet potato then?"
The surprising answer is, NOPE.
Here are some tips that I'm sharing with you 😉
- Make this frosting 1 day earlier and keep it in the fridge until you want to use it. Leaving the ingredients some time to get to know each other really change the taste.
If you were to make it the day of, frost your cake and eat it then yes, I would say that most probably you'd find that mashed sweet potato taste lingering at the back of your mind.
But trust me, make it 1 day earlier like I said and you'd be surprised 😉
- Bake the sweet potatoes, don't boil them. Baking makes them sweeter, which then means we will use less sweetener. Boiling makes them absorbing water too much. Which we don't want.
There you go. A healthy treat that you can try to make this weekend! And don't forget that you can rate the recipes that you've tried by selecting the stars in the comment section below.
Share your creations with me by tagging me in Instagram @elmundoeats or use #elmundoeats.
In Summary
This healthy zucchini chocolate cake is:
- as healthy as a delicious chocolate cake can be
- super moist with amazing chocolate flavour
- has no refined sugar, no white flour and barely any fat in it
- the chocolate frosting is just something that you need to try
- super easy to make
Hungry For More Chocolate Treats?
- Devil's food cake with sour cream chocolate frosting
- Salted oatmeal chocolate chunks cookies
- Chocolate cream caramel
- No bake chocolate cheesecake
- Chocolate banana bread
Video
📖 Recipe
Healthy Zucchini Chocolate Cake
Video
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Chocolate Frosting
- 1 lb mashed sweet potato (450 g)
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (25 g)
- 2 tablespoon honey (40 g)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Zucchini Chocolate Cake
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup spelt flour (130 g)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (25 g), sifted
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup coconut sugar (100 g)
- ½ cup applesauce (140 g)
- 1 large egg , room temperature
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup packed grated zucchini (200 g)
Instructions
Sweet Potato Chocolate Frosting
- Bake whole sweet potato with skin in a preheated oven at 350ºF (175ºC) for 1 hour or until it's very tender. Cool completely.
- Scoop out the flesh and add into your food processor together with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until you get a very smooth texture. Place in a piping bag for later use.
- Note: - Adjust the sweetness accordingly since not all sweet potatoes are the same.- I use 1 big sweet potato for this recipe and measured out the flesh.- I would highly recommend that you make the frosting 1 day before for a true night and day taste difference. Read more about it in my post above.
Zucchini Chocolate Cake
- Prepare 2 round pans of 6 inch (15 cm). Grease, line and flour them. Use cake strips on both pans. Preheat oven at 350ºF (175ºC).
Dry Ingredients
- Add all ingredients into a bowl, mix well and set aside.
Wet Ingredients
- In another bowl, add all ingredients except zucchini. Mix well using a hand whisk.
- Now add in half of dry ingredients and continue whisking to incorporate everything. Don't over mix. Add the rest of dry ingredients and mix well.
- Lastly add in grated zucchini and fold everything together using a spatula. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans and bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out ever so slightly wet.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely on a rack before using.
- Note: If you're not using cake strips like I did, check if your cakes are done at 30 minutes mark. More or less.
Assembling
- Place one cake on a cake stand or a serving place. Pipe chocolate frosting on its surface and place the other cake on top. Now pipe the frosting all around the cake, including the top surface.
- Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting evenly. Sprinkle some chocolate chips and chocolate rice on top. Slice and serve!
- Note: The cake taste way better the next day 😉
How To Keep
- Cover tightly and keep at room temperature up to 2 days.
Bec says
Made this for my health nut of a sister's birthday and we all enjoyed it. Even my kids were impressed as they initially didn't want to eat it after watching me make the icing (which definitely improved with time as suggested). I used one pan and just cut the cake in half but otherwise did exactly as instructed.
Bea says
Haha! If it's kids-approved, then I'd say it's a success! I'm happy to hear that everybody enjoyed it. Thanks for your feedback, Bec! I have more recipes with healthier ingredients here, for whenever you feel like making any. ❤️
xenia says
CAN I SKIP THE EGG FROM THE RECIPE? IF YES, WHAT TO PUT TO REPLACE IT?
Bea says
I haven't tried it without egg, sorry though!
Lana says
I was wondering if I don't have spelt flour, could I use almond or oat flour or regular ? and if so will I need to change the recipe ? thank you, looking foward to preparing this cake 🙂
Bea says
Hi Lana! If you don't have spelt flour you could try use all purpose flour. Let me know how it goes!