Gluten-Free Egg-Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Do you ever have those days where you find something in your fridge, knowing you bought it for a particular recipe, but you can’t remember what so it sits… and sits… and sits there, sadly waiting for your frail memory to do it’s job and remember? No? Come on… I can’t be the only one, right? Anyway, I did this with zucchini recently. I use it all the time, but it has to be hidden. The family doesn’t like it too firm and they don’t like it soggy, so zucchini usually gets finely diced in soup, or blended into sauces or baked goods!

So here was this one large, lonely zucchini…

It was looking pretty sad and was destined to become chicken food if I didn’t act quickly. Then I noticed my bag of Cacao powder on the counter…

Then I did my usual, searching for a gluten-free vegan version of what I wanted, only to come up with a couple of recipes that came close, but no cigar. So I got my mad scientist coat on and went to work.

Gluten-free, Egg-Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients:
1 ½ c Teff Flour
½ c Tapioca Starch
¼ c Cacao powder
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
½ Apple
1 Medium Banana
¼ c Coconut Oil
¼ c Butter
1/4c Honey
4 Dates
Replacement for 3 eggs (I used 3T ground flax, 2T chia seeds, ½ c water, ¼ c kefir)**
2 c shredded zucchini
½ c mini chocolate chips

1. Grease a square pyrex and preheat oven to 350.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Place wet ingredients (Leave zucchini and chocolate chips out of this step) in a high powered blender. Blend until completely smooth with no trace of intact chia seeds or apple skin.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir with wooden spoon. (If the mixture seems dry, the zucchini might be just enough moisture to balance it out, so wait to add in any extra liquid until then.)
5. Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips. My batter seemed a bit thick so I added a splash of kefir. It was still a bit thicker than regular cake batter.
6. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes. Watch carefully so as not to overbake.

**Mixing chia seeds with flax and some goat kefir has given me the best results in baking without eggs or gluten. If you can tolerate eggs, by all means, use them, or whatever your go-to egg substution is.

Now, for the frosting… Well, as is the norm in the Crowbarmama household, the natives were getting restless and frosting making was coinciding with serving dinner. I happened to be making my modified pasta sauce, where I roast butternut squash and blend together equal parts squash to organic bottled pasta sauce to boost the veggie content and it needed more creaminess, so part of the coconut cream that was supposed to go into a lovely chocolate ganache recipe, ended up in the pasta sauce.

So, in traditional Crowbarmama fashion, I whipped up a Plan B. FYI, in my kitchen, Plan B’s often contain Kerrygold butter because, well, everything is better with butter. 😉 The only downside to this Plan B is that it had to happen quickly since dinner was being served and I failed to write down the exact amounts. I know! I know! I should know better by now, but have you ever had 5 hangry faces staring you down? You do not stop to write! You just move! And besides, you just really can’t go wrong with toppings. Anything chocolatey, buttery & somewhat sweet is going to be a hit, right? In our case, we’re such fans of good quality butter and sea salt that my toppings usually end up almost with a savory quality. My point is don’t be afraid to experiment. You can always add a dash of this or that if you don’t like the finished product.

So, here’s a run-down of what I did. While heating the small amount of coconut cream I had left, I got out my hand mixer and fluffed a half cup of Kerrygold goodness. I then added several Tbsp of cacao powder, some maple syrup and vanilla to the warmed coconut cream. Since I wasn’t melting chocolate, I didn’t boil the coconut milk, just warmed enough to get the cacao to blend well. I then set the cacao/coconut mixture in the freezer to cool while we ate dinner. Towards the end of the meal, I added the now room-temp cacao/coconut mixture to the butter and blended well. I ended up adding ½ c powdered sugar and a pinch of salt and was really happy with it.

The texture of the cake was surprisingly good. For those of you who are trying to bake gluten-free and egg-free, this often results in baked goods being very dense or overly moist-almost pudding-like in texture. This was not the case with this cake. It had a very satisfactory crumb and if you’re worried about your loved ones turning their noses at the zucchini, just peel off the green and they’ll never know. Oh, and it did NOT taste of banana at all. Wildstyle is very particular about cooked banana-doesn’t like it all and she had no idea!

The only one to notice the green was @guntotnhippie, “What’s this green stuff?” Luckily my 4 kiddos just giggled and dug into their cakes. And he must have liked it after all since one piece of cake went missing after all the @crowbarkids were tucked in bed…

Well, I hope I didn’t disappoint you too much with the lack of recipe for the topping, but seriously, the cake alone was delicious and would be fantastic served warm for breakfast with some butter (of course) and a large mug of milk or coffee!

Oh! And if you're wondering about the photos being in daylight while the cake was being baked around dinner time, well, I didn't even get a chance to photograph it before it was frosted, sliced and devoured. Luckily, a few pieces made it to the following day and being that they had zucchini in them, were served as a "Breakfast Dessert!" It's all about balance, right?

I chose @Crowbarmama as a handle because I believe in doing the best you can with what you have on hand. The crowbar is a multi-purpose tool. You’ll notice my photography is a bit rough, my grammar is not the most polished, but as a homeschooling, homesteading mama of 4, if I waited to take my photos until the light was perfect or re-edited my posts a 5th time ( I shoot for 3 drafts), I would never get a post out!

Don’t sweat the small stuff, just Crowbar it!

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