By: redchilliesPosted on

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I have blogging little more than 2.5 years now, yet I find it tricky to phrase the first paragraph. OK, let me re-phrase, tricky to form the first line of the post. Many a times, I complete the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs for the post, and then go back and finish off the first one. The ingredients and procedure are the easy parts, not much thinking involved there; it is just stating the steps, but not so much with the preceding paragraphs. Hey look, with these statements I have now managed to cross the hurdle, so let’s get back to the recipe, shall we?:-)

I had bookmarked this recipe here a long time ago and was waiting for a good time to try it.  The appealing factor for me was that not only is this eggless, low fat, no butter but the addition of bananas, zucchini that made it healthy. Plus I had not tried baking with zucchini earlier, so I was very curious about that. I got an opportunity last Sunday (what a glorious day that was!) when I had the right ingredients on hand (including zucchinis) and also the right amount of time.

 This recipe can be adapted to make either bread or muffins. Please note that this takes a long time to bake, but the taste is never the less delicious. I made some changes to the recipe by adding cocoa powder, reducing sugar, oil etc. The addition of zucchini made this soft; however it made no difference to the taste. The flavor of banana was powering everything else. The cake turned out soft and dense, but not moist. Good one to have for a quick snack or for breakfast along with tea or coffee.

Off this goes to Bake Off Event at Versatile Kitchen.

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Recipe Source: Adapted from here.

 Ingredients: 

  • 3/4 cup grated zucchini (there is no need to peel the zucchini)
  • 1 cup over ripe banana mashed
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1 Tbsp applesauce
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1.25 cups flour
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

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Directions: 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 5″ diameter cake pan. (use any pan of choice).
  • In a big bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, baking salt and cocoa powder.
  • In a small bowl mix the grated zucchini, mashed bananas, oil, sugar, applesauce and vanilla together.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir well.
  • Pour batter into pan and top off with chopped walnuts. Bake for 50-60 minutes. (yes, this is how long it takes)
  • Note: If baking as muffins or as cupcakes then bake for 30 minutes.

 Take it out from the oven, let it cool and cut into desired shapes.

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All these beauties, hither to unnoticed are now catching my attention, thanks to my developing interest in photography. This beautiful flower here unfortunately is a type of weed and they are growing precariously in our backyard. This means only one thing: that a certain someone in our household needs to take charge and finish off lawn mowing both the front and the backyard (ahem..cough cough).

 Trivia about dandelions:

Dandelions, flowers, roots and leaves, have been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine & medicinal teas, most notably for liver detoxification, as a natural diuretic and for inflammation reduction. Unlike other diuretics, dandelion leaves contain good amounts of potassium, a mineral that is often lost during increased urination. There is also evidence that this property of dandelion leaves may normalize blood sugar. (Source)

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Categories: Easy Vegetarian Recipes, Eggless Recipes/ Egg Free Baking, Low Fat Recipes, Vegan Recipes

23 Replies to “Low Fat Banana and Zucchini Cake”

  1. I bet it was a perfect day, I love zucchini cake and with banana and low fat sounds perfect to me.Will try doing it as a cup cake.

  2. Nice cake… new to me(zucchini addition)..liked that so little oil and no egg/butter is added…I am just looking for these kind of lowfat cakes…..mainly loved the snaps…the flower is so beautiful…

  3. I used to feel the same way ,always am at a loss of content when I begin the post.
    Healthy recipe.I always look for easy to bake cake recipes.Any thoughts on substitution of wheat flour for AP.

  5. The color is so deep like a chocolate cake. It snowed last week on sunday, heard it was 7 inches at the DFW airport..and that too we are in TX, in end of March..sheesh.

  6. Looks stunning. If you are getting into baking, you should invest in the muffin pans or ramekins. I probably have all the sizes that are available.

  7. It happened to me at most of the post. I usually ended typing at the end min the first line! Not alone 🙂 Love ur bread and weed pict!

  8. I loved the dark deep color of this cake. Look so fabulous! I really hoped that you would have posted a pic of cake slice here. 🙂

  9. Looks awesome, had never tasted anything sweet made using Zucchini..wondering how do this tastes?hmmm bet its delicious !

  10. Thanks Soumya and the day was pretty gorgeous. Making this as a cupcake is a cool idea. Let me know how it turned out.If making cupcake/muffins bake it only for 30 minutes.

    Thanks Kamalika. This is the first time, I am baking with zucchini as well. But I like the fact that addition of it along with banana make it healthy.

    Thanks Maya. Glad you feel that way too about the content. I am not sure how this will work with whole wheat. The idea had crossed my mind, but I did not want to take any chance in my first experiement. Maybe next time when I bake it I will use whole wheat.

    Thanks jyoti. So glad you liked it. I enjoy baking eggless too.

  11. Thanks Sowji. The color is because of the chocolate powder in there. hmmmm…it did not snow in here last week, it was just glorious. It however snowed 2 Sundays ago,but then cleaned up pretty fast too.

    Thanks Champa..I agree, I am developing interest in baking and hope to get some pans soon. Lazy person that I am, I hate cleaning those baking pans and they get dark pretty soon. So I use these use-and-throw ones to save some elbow grease 🙁

    Thanks Cham, glad that I am not alone. The weed is pretty cute sin’t it?

    Thanks Sonia…ah, I did take out a slice, but the picture turned out pretty bad. I was trying too many things at the same time. But the taste was good 🙂

    Thanks Alka. No differnce in taste after adding the zucchini, the taste of banana power eveything else. Though zucchini makes the cake soft.

  12. love zukes in the cakes/breads… makes it so soft. That is one gorgeous pic of a dangerous weed:-) our yard is in a mess with these.

  16. hi supriya,
    after so long I’m visiting any blog, glad started with yours…..bake looks wonderful, me too yet have to experiment with zuchini in baking……about pans U can also bake them in pyrex glassware or for muffins I use non-stick muffin pan without any paper liners….no stains….

  19. Hello, just doing some browsing for my Pyrex site. Truly more information than you can imagine on the web. Wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but very nice site. Have a good day.

  20. I was thinking of making this. Do we peel the zucchini or it it grated with skin? And by vanilla …I presume you mean Vanilla essence right?

  21. Divya, there is no need to peel the zucchini and yes vanilla is essence. Thanks for trying the recipes!

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