Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Soft zucchini cake frosted with a rich, tangy cream cheese frosting is the best way to eat zucchini this summer!

If you have a garden, the odds are good that you’ve had too much zucchini on hand at one time or another. Overzealous gardening friends and neighbors have been known to leave bags of this prolific vegetable on our doorstep in the past as well.

There’s a joke each year that you should leave your car unlocked or you might find a dozen zucchini on the passenger seat. No place is safe at the height of zucchini season.

That said, zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can up the nutritional status of lots of tasty sweet recipes from quick breads to cakes.

This zucchini cake recipe with its creamy sweet frosting has converted my zucchini haters into fans at long last.

To be precise, the formerly anti-zucchini members of my household are zucchini fans now only when it is baked into this cake, Classic Easy Zucchini Bread, or Peanut Butter Swirled Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

Zucchini Cake Recipe

For most zucchini-based cakes, muffins, and quick bread recipes, you’ll need to shred zucchini. This can be done by hand with a cheese grater or you can use a food processor with the grating blade attached.

Grated zucchini can be frozen in batches, but make sure you drain the thawed zucchini well when you use it. Otherwise, it will add too much liquid to the recipe.

This recipe makes an 8×8 cake, but I usually double it to fit a 9×13 pan. Believe it or not, the cake disappears surprisingly fast. The cream cheese frosting complements the cake so well, I often find myself going back for just one more sliver whenever I make this.

Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×8 inch baking pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the zucchini, sugar, oil and eggs. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a separate bowl.
2. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Spread the batter into the greased baking pan. Bake at 350 F. for 28-32 minutes. Cool completely.
3. Beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Spread onto cool cake.

End of Summer Baking Recipes

Baking cakes, muffins, and quick breads can be a fun way to use up all the fresh, in-season produce during the summer. I often double the recipes in order to freeze extra to enjoy later.

Classic Easy Zucchini Bread is a long-time favorite and this Peanut Butter Swirled Chocolate Zucchini Bread is a sure bet for convincing any skeptics that zucchini is delicious.

Garden Chive Rolls make the most of an abundance of fresh herbs. Harvest Squash Bread makes an amazing and hearty sandwich, it’s also great toasted with butter.

Lemon Berry Muffins are popular all year round, since you can make them with fresh or frozen berries. Rhubarb Streusel Muffins are another great option for the freezer.

Pineapple Zucchini Bread and Lemon Zucchini Bread are a couple more on my list to try.

{originally published 8/1/16 – recipe notes and photos updated 7/15/21}