Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (Vegan!)

I love zucchini bread ALMOST as much as I love banana bread. And since I am still getting zucchinis from my crop share I decided I would make zucchini cake. What's the difference between zucchini bread and cake? Nothing really. But instead of baking it in a loaf pan, I put it in an 8X8 square pan, added some vegan cream cheese frosting and called it "cake" - WHY not!? It was delicious and very moist - anyone who knows me knows I abhor a dry cake/muffin/bread. If you make any dessert from my blog you can be certain it won't be dry....I don't do dry baked goods- total buzz kill. 

I am always a bit nervous when I label something as "vegan" because I am afraid it turns people off, like it won't taste as good as the OG. I am telling you all, I share my baked goods with friends, co-workers, kids' friends, etc, all the time and no one can ever tell that my sweets don't have eggs or dairy. If you are nervous about it, you can always use the real thing. For instance, I use vegan cream cheese and vegan butter in the frosting - if that's not your jam, then use dairy cream cheese and real butter. 

*Also, I never buy buttermilk, vegan or otherwise... I always just make it at home. Did you know you can make buttermilk using only two ingredients? Any type of milk or plant milk, and a bit of vinegar. That's it! I used to buy buttermilk for recipes - I hated having to buy a whole carton of it when I only needed 1/2 cup. So I figured out if you put 1 Tbl of vinegar into 1 cup of milk/plant milk and let it sit for 10 minutes, you have buttermilk! Boom! 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (150 g) shredded zucchini, patted dry
• 1/2 cup (120 mL) vegan buttermilk* (1/2 cup plant milk + 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup spelt flour (you can just sub another cup of all purpose flour if you don't have spelt)
• 1 Tbl cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger 
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/3 cup (80 g) avocado oil or canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:

5 oz vegan cream cheese (I like Oatly, Violife or Trader Joe's vegan cream cheese) room temperature

4 Tbl vegan butter (I like Country Crock with Avocado Oil, Earth Balance or Violife brands for baking), room temperature

1 1/2  cups sifted powdered sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbl plant milk (I like full fat Oatly for baking, but any plant milk will do)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Grease an 8X8 inch pan and line it with parchment paper - so that the edges are hanging over a bit. This makes it super easy to remove the cake from the pan. 

Make the vegan buttermilk in a small bowl by mixing the plant milk and the apple cider vinegar together. Give a little stir and set aside for 10 minutes. 

Shred the zucchini and pat it dry with some paper towels. This will take up any excess moisture. 

In a large mixing bowl add the flours, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, brown sugar, white sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together.  Add the shredded zucchini and stir to incorporate. 

In a separate smaller bowl combine the applesauce, avocado oil, vanilla and vegan buttermilk you made earlier. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir. 

Put zucchini cake mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 42-45 minutes (mine came out perfectly at 44 minutes). Remove from the oven and let sit for a good hour before icing. 

 

To make the icing use a handheld mixer to whisk the room temperature vegan cream cheese and room temperature vegan butter together. Add the sifted powdered sugar, vanilla and plant milk. Whisk until smooth and creamy. Once the cake is thoroughly cooled down frost it in the pan. I like to put the whole frosted cake into the refrigerator for an hour to let the icing set. You don't have to do this but I find it is much easier to cut when everything has chilled. Removed the cake from the pan using the parchment hangover. Place on a cutting board and cut cake into squares and enjoy!