Zucchini Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cake
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This healthier, sweet bread-type breakfast cake is one of the best ways to use up zucchini and eat some sneaky veggies. It turns out moist and decadent but is filled with all real food ingredients you can feel good about. Kids and adults love this one as breakfast, snack, or dessert.
Or try our Banana Breakfast Cake instead.
I LOVE this easy method. No shredding zucchini ahead of time (and no green is visible in the cake to picky eaters). That’s right! We’re using the blender instead. You’ll have this cake in the oven in less than 15 minutes.
Ingredients
Here are the stars of this breakfast cake show…
- Cooking spray – I like to use non-propellent avocado oil spray.
- White whole wheat flour – I love this lighter, whole grain flour. It works much like all-purpose flour but has more protein and fiber. Sometimes it can be hard to find, so a substitute for this would be to use half whole wheat and half unbleached all-purpose.
- Sugar – I use coconut sugar as a little healthier alternative. Honey does not work the same way as sugar in this recipe, so I’ve found it doesn’t work great as a substitute.
- Plain Greek yogurt – Nonfat or full-fat works. If you want a little sweeter bread, use vanilla Greek yogurt for more sweetness.
- Overripe banana – Adds natural sweetness and moisture.
- Medium zucchini
How to Make Zucchini Breakfast Cake
Find the detailed, printable recipe at the bottom, but here’s an overview of how this recipe goes…
Prep
Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees. Spray a 9×9 inch or 8×8 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
Wet Ingredients
Add the oil, eggs, sugar, yogurt, vanilla, banana, and zucchini to a high-powered blender. Secure the lid and blend until smooth.
Combine
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir just until it starts to come together (do not stir a lot here). Add the chocolate chips and stir until fully combined, being careful not to over-mix.
Bake
Pour batter into the dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes for a 9×9 inch pan or 40-45 minutes for 8×8 inch pan, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out mostly clean. Place on a cooling rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
What to Serve with Breakfast Cake
Make this a well-rounded meal or brunch by adding some of these side dishes.
Freezing Instructions
We are huge fans of make-ahead freezer meals. Not only have we written two freezer meal cookbooks, but we have a huge collection of freezer meals that are delicious, healthy, and easy! Zucchini Breakfast Cake is a recipe that freezes beautifully.
If you are already busting out all of the ingredients and utensils to make this breakfast cake, you might as well make two batches and freeze one for later. Here’s how:
To Freeze For Later: Bake breakfast cake just until done. Cool completely. Either cover the baking dish tightly in a few layers of foil or plastic wrap or carefully lift the cake out of the baking dish and wrap in several layers of foil or plastic wrap, pressing as much air out as you can.
To Prepare From Frozen: Thaw on the counter. Warm a slice in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and top with a pat of butter, if desired.
Variations and Substitutions
This breakfast cake recipe is fairly forgiving, so feel free to make some of these tweaks if you’d like.
- Dairy-Free Version: Use non-dairy Greek yogurt and dairy-free chocolate chips.
- To Add More Sweetness: If you’d like to add more sweetness without altering the texture, use vanilla Greek yogurt in place of plain Greek yogurt. Or simply spread a little honey on top of slice.
- Zucchini Substitute: Use diced carrot in place of the zucchini.
- Greek Yogurt Substitute: Use sour cream instead. I would not suggest using milk, since it didn’t seem to work as well in my tests. It threw off the acid balance and the outside browned too fast.
Why Is White Whole Wheat Flour So Important?
If you spend much time browsing through our baked goods, you’ll find that we almost always use white whole wheat flour (instead of just “whole wheat flour”). We’ve found that white whole wheat flour yields much fluffier/lighter-tasting results. It works in most recipes as a replacement for whole wheat flour. Here is a bit more about the difference between the two.
Here are some of our favorite recipes that use white whole wheat flour:
More Zucchini Recipes You’ll Love
Did you make this? Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram at @thrivinghome so we can see your creations and cheer you on!
Zucchini Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cake
This healthier, moist, and sweet breakfast cake is one of the best ways to use up zucchini and eat some sneaky veggies. The best part is how easy it is–no shredding of zucchini required.
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour*
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup avocado oil (sub: melted, cooled coconut oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar (I use coconut sugar for a little healthier alternative)
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (use vanilla Greek yogurt for more sweetness)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large overripe banana
- 1 medium zucchini, diced (about 2 1/2 cups diced zucchini)
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
*Sub 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup unbleached all-purpose.
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Instructions
Make It Now:
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees. Spray a 9×9 inch or 8×8 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- Wet Ingredients: Add the oil, eggs, sugar, yogurt, vanilla, banana, and zucchini to a high-powered blender. Secure the lid and blend until smooth.
- Combine: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir just until it starts to come together (do not stir a lot here). Add the chocolate chips and stir until fully combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Bake: Pour batter into the dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes for a 9×9 inch pan or 40-45 minutes for 8×8 inch pan, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out mostly clean. Place on a cooling rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
Freeze For Later: Bake the cake just until done. Cool completely. Either cover the baking dish tightly in a few layers of foil or plastic wrap or carefully lift the cake out of the baking dish and wrap in several layers of foil or plastic wrap, pressing as much air out as you can. Label and freeze.
Prepare From Frozen: Thaw in the fridge or on the counter. Warm a slice in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and top with a pat of butter, if desired.
Notes/Tips
- Dairy-Free Version: Use non-dairy Greek yogurt and dairy-free chocolate chips.
- To Add More Sweetness: If you’d like to add more sweetness without altering the texture, use vanilla Greek yogurt in place of plain Greek yogurt. Or simply spread a little honey on top of slice.
- Zucchini Substitute: Use diced carrot in place of the zucchini.
- Greek Yogurt Substitute: Use sour cream instead. I would not suggest using milk, since it didn’t seem to work as well in my tests. It threw off the acid balance and the outside browned too fast.
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This was very tasty! I used white flour and supplemented my small zucchini with carrots. We had it for breakfast for dinner along with the egg bites. Kids enjoyed it with a tad bit of confectioners sugar 🫢
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review with your substitutions. So glad the kiddos enjoyed it!
I made this for breakfast this morning. I used sprouted spelt flour and added two tablespoons cacao powder. I also opted for the coconut oil. All my family enjoyed it and I loved the ease of putting it all in the blender !
Wonderful Michelle. Thanks for letting others know of the substitutions your family enjoyed. 🙂
Would shredded zucchini work or does it have to be diced? I have a bunch of shredded zuc in my freezer that needs to be used so I have room for my freezer meals!
Hi Amber. Because we have you blend all of the wet ingredients in a high-powered blender, it shouldn’t matter if the zucchini is shredded or chopped.
I’ll chime in here, too. If you want to skip the blender part, you could mix up all the wet ingredients in a bowl and add in shredded zucchini. I just used the blender because it saves so much time (no shredding).
If planning on making these in muffin tins, what would you adjust the baking time to?
Hi Jenn. I haven’t made this particular recipe into muffins yet, but generally, it’s about 15-18 minutes when I make a bread recipe into muffins. Just keep an eye on them!
This recipe was absolutely delicious. My pickiest kid devoured it. I especially love that I don’t have to shred or squeeze water out of the zucchini. For sure a recipe I will double and freeze in the future.
So great to hear. I’m not above sneaking veggies into any baked good these days.