Zucchini is my favorite vegetable to bake with because it gives the baked goods a moist texture and it's very easy to sneak in any recipe. I have quite a collection of zucchini recipes but still keep looking for more and that's when I stumbled on this one. I have made changes to the recipe to make it egg free and also to cut down the fat content as it uses a cup of oil. I have used homemade unsweetened applesauce as a fat substitute and yogurt as an egg substitute. I also reduced the quantity of sugar because I was using the juice from the canned pineapple too. Even then the cake was very sweet for us.
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Recipe
Cranberry Zucchini Snack Cake
Ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 and ½ cups white sugar
- 1 and ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
WET INGREDIENTS:
- 1 can (14 ounces) crushed pineapple
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
ADD-ONS:
- 1 cup shredded zucchini
- 1 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen
- ½ cup walnuts
SUBSTITUTIONS:
- coconut oil - any other oil
- zucchini - carrot
- cranberries - blueberries or any other dried fruit
- walnuts - pecans pistachios, almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Line two 9-inch round pans with parchment paper. Puree the can of crushed pineapple with the juice and set aside.
- In a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk together the applesauce, yogurt, oil, vanilla extract and blended pineapple puree.
- Incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry flour mix and stir until just combined.
- Fold in the zucchini, cranberries and walnuts.
- Divide the batter between the two pans. To be precise scoop out 1 cup of batter each time and fill the pans equally. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then move it to wire racks to cool completely. Dust with confectioner's sugar, if desired. Cut each cake into 8 wedges.
My Notes
- I cut back about 75% of oil and substituted applesauce for it. I think that's the reason the cake was quite dense. The kids didn't mind it all because the cake was very sweet. But I was able to feel it. So I would suggest trying this recipe with cake flour instead of all-purpose flour to see if it gave a better texture.
- The next time I bake this cake, I'm going to infuse a hint of orange flavor by adding orange zest and some freshly squeezed orange juice.
Sujata says
I have a quick question, did you squeeze out the zucchini after grating & discarded the water or used just the grated zucchini as is without squeezing? Please reply soon. Thanks.
Madhuram says
Without squeezing, Sujata.
Paula B. says
This looks so yummy, can't wait to put two of my favorites together. And, this summer when my friends' gardens are bursting with zucchini I will pass this recipe on to them! I may be decadent and put a drizzle of lemon (?) icing atop this, and still have it for breakfast.
Madhuram says
Lemon icing sounds wonderful.
Genie says
Oh that looks so good!
Sudha says
Love all the pics of the recipes you post. They look yummy, moist and luscious. However, almost all recipes use all purpose flour, which we dont buy at all, for health reasons. Also, I am very skeptical about using baking powder and soda in liberal amounts. Vinegar is another big no-no in our house. I have tried many of your recipes with whole wheat/spelt flour, lemon juice for vinegar/but they never come out as good. I want to request you to please share some knowledge about avoiding APF/vinegar as well as leavening agents in your "substitutions/My notes" section in your future recipes, for people like me. Really appreciate your good work. Hoping to hear from you soon. Thanks a ton!
Madhuram says
Hi Sudha, you have ruled out all the possible egg substitutes. You have to try doubling the quantity of lemon juice when using it in place of vinegar. So if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of vinegar it would be 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Are you avoiding vinegar for specific health reasons? I'm asking this because vinegar is actually good for you. About baking powder and baking soda, unless you are consuming the whole batch of cookies or an entire cake you won't be consuming a lot of it. Baking recipes usually call for about a teaspoon to two teaspoons of leaveners and it's divided among the entire batch and you would be actually consuming a small tiny part of it. The only egg less recipes I think which uses a considerable amount of baking powder is the pancake and waffles recipe. Baking egg free is already quite a challenge and I don't think it's possible to avoid leaveners and vinegar too. If we do that all we have is sweetened chapathi dough and we can't expect it to rise. Even if you chose to use yogurt and silken tofu as egg substitute you need another leavner for the cake/muffin to rise and be at least a little fluffy. Another substitute is yeast but it will not be suitable for all baked goods.
Priya says
Woww, such a beautiful cake, cant take my eyes from those slices, very moist and damn attractive.