Keto Healthy Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This Keto Healthy Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is the one low carb cake you'll want to make for every occasion! It can be made into two, four or six layers!

The Best Zucchini Cake Recipe Ever

See those four layers? That's the best part about this zucchini cake. It can be made with two layers, four layers, or six layers.  Whatever you prefer. You simply need to double or triple the recipe for the type of cake you want to make.

I was first going to make a two-layer low carb zucchini cake, but when it was time to take a picture, I realized it would look so much better with four layers rather than two.

This gluten free zucchini cake uses my low carb cream cheese frosting which balances the sweetness of the cake perfectly.  You could also use my low carb chocolate frosting if you'd want to do a chocolate version.

Why Add Zucchini to a Cake?

Zucchini adds moisture to a cake and ensures the cake stays soft, crumbly and moist all at the same time.  It's a great healthy way to use your zucchinis from your garden.   The best part about this recipe is that it can be used to make low carb zucchini muffins, low carb zucchini bread, or even low carb zucchini donuts.  You can also use zucchini to make yourself a low carb chocolate zucchini cake.

Low Carb Alternative to Carrot Cake

I have a delicious sugar free carrot cake recipe on my blog that I love making that is also topped with my sugar free cream cheese frosting. Some people on keto aren't too comfortable making a carrot cake since it uses carrots, so I decided to create a zucchini version.

The ingredients are a little similar, but the carb count is pretty much the same as the carrot cake.  However, instead of making cake bars, I decided to make an amazing four layer cake.

Zucchini cake is just as good as carrot cake and I can't wait for you to try it!

How to Make Zucchini Cake

The first and most important step when making this healthy zucchini cake is to squeeze the water out of the zucchini beforehand.  If you don't do that, you'll end up with a wet gooey mess.

The second thing is to oil your springform pans all over and cover the bottom with some parchment paper.  It'll be easier to take the cake out of the pan if you put a parchment paper at the bottom.

Use a cheese grater to shred your zucchinis.  I used one large zucchini per layer so four zucchinis if you're going to make a four layer cake.

Once you've finished grating all of your zucchinis, you'll add the zucchini into a towel or a cheese cloth, or anything that is solid enough to squeeze. Don't use paper towels as they'll just rip apart and won't be able to support the water and zucchini.

Using your towel, squeeze the water out of the zucchinis as hard as you can. I measured the zucchinis before and after and ¼ of the weight disappeared just with the water squeezed out.

You'll then add all of the liquid ingredients to the zucchinis and mix evenly.  In a separate bowl, you'll mix the dry ingredients together and then add the zucchini mix over.

Mix again.  The zucchini cake batter will be pretty thick.  It is NOT supposed to be pourable or wet.  I first tried to make this recipe without the coconut flour and the cake turned out way too wet. You'll definitely need to add it for it to be moist and crumbly!

Once the batter has been evenly mixed, you'll separate it into two, four, or six (depending on how many layers you're making) and then evenly spread it into your oiled springform pans.

You'll then pop the cakes into the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes. Once they finished baking, you'll take them out of the oven and let them completely cool down.  It would even be better if you let them chill in the fridge for a couple of hours before frosting.

So here you can decide whether you want two layers or four layers.  You'll just need to double the cake recipe and the frosting recipe if you choose to do four layers.

Once the cake is perfectly cooled down, you can make sugar free cream cheese frosting and then frost the low carb zucchini cake.

How to Make Sugar Free Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe uses a homemade cream cheese frosting recipe made without any sugar or butter.  This low carb cream cheese frosting recipe is made with a combination of cream cheese, heavy cream and low carb sweeteners.

It's important that you use cold ingredients or your frosting won't whip and it'll melt all over your cake.  It's also super important that you use powdered erythritol and not the granulated kind to ensure that you don't have a grainy or sandy texture in your frosting.

This low carb cream cheese frosting recipe itself is pretty easy to make.

In a large bowl, you'll start by adding the cream cheese and whipping it until soft and creamy.  Then you'll add the low carb sweeteners and vanilla and combine.

You'll then add the heavy cream a little at a time, while continuing to mix with your hand mixer.  Add the cream and whip for a good 2-3 minutes until the sugar free cream cheese frosting is nice and fluffy.

Keep in the refrigerator until you're ready to frost your cake.

What Low Carb Sweeteners to Use 

I tried making this sugar free zucchini cake with different sweeteners and my favourite ones are definitely the low carb "brown sugar" alternatives instead of the white sweeteners.

My two recommendations are using Sukrin Gold or Lakanto Golden.  Lakanto is sweeter than Sukrin so you don't need to add as much.

• ¾ cup Sukrin Gold
• ½ cup Lakanto Golden

If you want to use a combination of erythritol and stevia, I would suggest adding ½ cup of erythritol and ½ tsp of stevia powder.

Tools Used to Make This Healthy Zucchini Cake

9" springform pan with loose bottoms: These springform pans are great to use for any dessert, including cheesecake or quiches.

Icing spatula:  Having one of these helps frost the cake evenly.

Hand mixer: This is one essential tool to have in the kitchen.  I make all of my cakes and frosting recipes with this.

Final Tips & Recap

Before making this healthy zucchini cake recipe, make sure to read the following tips and possible substitutions to ensure that your cake turns out perfectly!

• Don't forget to add the coconut flour or else your cake will be too wet.
• Make sure to squeeze the water out of the zucchini.
• Make sure to put a piece of parchment paper at the bottom of your springform pans so that it's easier to take off the cake after it's done cooking.
• For a 4 layer cake, DOUBLE the recipe.  For a 6 layer cake, TRIPLE the recipe for both the cake and cream cheese frosting.
• For the cream cheese frosting, make sure to use POWDERED erythritol and not the granulated kind.
• Instead of coconut oil, you can use any type of fat you want. Butter, ghee, lard, olive oil, and the likes will all work.
• Instead of ¾ cup of Sukrin Gold, you can use ½ cup of Lakanto Golden.
• Instead of almond milk, you can use any other type of nut milk, coconut milk, heavy cream or cow milk.
• Instead of almond flour, you can use any other type of nut flour as a 1:1 replacement.

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