Chocolate Zucchini Cake (dairy & soy free)

It is that time of year, when seeing the abundance of zucchini from our garden, that my family requests I make Chocolate Zucchini Cake for them.

Now with the changes I have made in my diet over the past year I knew that the recipe, a friend shared with me many years ago, was going to require some revising before I could enjoy a piece, also.

I looked over the recipe to decide what needed to be reduced or replaced and set out to make a cake that both my family and I could enjoy and that I would feel better about serving. To some it may not seem healthier, but if I made all the changes that I wanted to they would probably not eat it, so I have learned to make baby steps in the right direction to retrain their taste buds.

In this recipe I lowered the sugar, replaced the butter, buttermilk  and chocolate to make it dairy-free & soy-free, replaced 1/2 the oil with applesauce and  replaced 1/2 the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour. I hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake (dairy & soy free)

A recipe, from a friend, that I revised

Serves: 12

7/8 cup organic brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup organic cane juice crystals

3 Tablespoons Wildtree Natural Butter Flavor Grapeseed Oil

1/4 cup Wildtree Natural Grapeseed Oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce ( I made homemade)

3 farm fresh eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon juice mixed with So Delicious Dairy-free Coconut Milk Beverage to equal 1/2 cup (*used in place of buttermilk)

1 1/4 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/4 cups organic unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

5 Tablespoons organic baking cocoa

2 cups grated fresh zucchini, not drained

2  1.4 ounce Enjoy life Boom Choco Boom Dark Chocolate Bars (they are dairy-free & soy-free), broken into small pieces

Preheat oven to  325 degrees and oil and flour a 9 x 13″ baking pan.

In a bowl, combine flours, spices, salt, baking soda and cocoa; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugars and oils together. Add eggs, vanilla, *buttermilk, and applesauce. Mix well.

Combine dry ingredients with the liquids; mix well.  Stir in zucchini and pour into prepared baking pan.

Sprinkle the broken pieces of chocolate bar on top of batter.

Bake for 35- 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool and serve.