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zucchini cake_hot for food

vegan zucchini pistachio cake

This cake is lightly spiced and super moist. Get ready to dig in!

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword baked goods, cake, frosting, pistachio, zucchini
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
Servings 8 pieces
Author Lauren Toyota

Ingredients

  • ¼ C shelled salted pistachios (ground into a flour or meal in a spice grinder)
  • 1 tbsp golden flax meal
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 C all purpose flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ½ C vegan butter, melted (1 stick)
  • ½ C granulated cane sugar
  • ¼ C packed light brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 zucchini (about 7-inches long x 1 ½-inches wide)

lime frosting

  • ¼ C vegan cream cheese
  • 1 ½ C sifted organic confectioners sugar
  • zest of 1 lime (about 2 tsp)
  • a few drops, lime juice
  • 1 tbsp shelled salted pistachios, finely chopped as garnish

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Line the bottom of a 6-inch springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides with vegan butter.
  3. Combine flax and water and set aside to thicken.
  4. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, ground pistachios, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  5. In another bowl or in the sauce pot you melted the butter in, combine butter, sugars, vanilla, and thickened flax and whisk until very well combined.

  6. Shred the zucchini on a box grater. You should have about 1 ¼ cup shredded. Using a nut milk bag or fine mesh seive, strain and squeeze the zucchini of excess water. Once strained it’s about ¾ cup of shredded zucchini.

  7. Add shredded zucchini to the flour mixture and break it up, tossing it around in the flour to coat. Add the butter and sugar mixture to this and fold together with a spatula until well combined and no dry ingredients are visible, but do not over mix the batter.

  8. Pour the cake batter into the springform pan. Spread evenly out to the edges. Place in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  9. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.

  10. To make the frosting, combine cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and lime zest until smooth using a hand mixture. You can add a few drops of lime juice if desired as well, but not too much that it affects the thickness of the icing. Spread onto the top of the cooled cake. Sprinkle chopped pistachios on top.

Recipe Notes

Cake freezes well too! I cut into individual slices and wrapped in plastic. Then placed pieces into a freezer bag.