Blueberry Zucchini Snack Cake with Lemon Buttercream is an easy snack cake combines the best of summer into one delicious treat, but since blueberries, zucchini, and lemons are available all year round, you never have to go without this yummy cake!
blueberry zucchini cake is a feast for the senses
When it comes right down to it, we food bloggers are just as susceptible to gorgeous Pinterest photos as anybody, maybe more. Lots of my food cravings start out as random pins that float innocently across my screen. You might have seen I am Baker’s cake around, it’s a stunner. I keep a little queue of recipes that I want to make and this one kept inching its way up to the top until finally I couldn’t resist.
snack cakes are perfect for summer’s laid back style
Amanda’s cake is a gorgeous 2 layers, fit for a celebration, but in true tvfgi style, I turned it into a casual snack cake. No less scrumptious, just a little more user friendly. Eat it with your hands, in your lap, off a paper napkin, whateves, but definitely try it.
best pan for a blueberry zucchini cake
Instead of using round cake pans, I baked the batter in my 9×13 USA pan, I love it, it’s got a wonderful heft to it, and cooks nice and evenly. I don’t like to bake in glass if I can avoid it because it tends to cook hot, and the edges can get overdone. I used this pan to bake my favorite Pecan Praline Pumpkin Cake and my Brown Sugar Peach Cake, too, and I’m always thrilled with the results.
BAKING TIP: Converting a layer cake to a 9×13 pan is easy — since the depth of the batter will be comparable, there are no changes necessary except to watch the baking time carefully. It will probably take a little longer in the 9×13 pan, so check with a toothpick to be sure.
how to make a blueberry zucchini cake
- Whisk the wet ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, then fold in the shredded zucchini.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a small bowl and then fold into the wet ingredients, just enough to combine.
- Fold in the blueberries and bake.
- The batter is luxurious and silky — and since it uses oil in place of butter it’s super easy to throw together. I made sure to rearrange my blueberries after filling the pan so they would be evenly distributed throughout the cake.
the lemon buttercream is the icing on the cake!
This blueberry zucchini cake is moist, dense, and delicious, but I think it’s the lemon buttercream that has my taste buds doing a jig. I love it, so I made sure to lay it on nice and thick.
BAKING TIP: I blended the lemon buttercream up in my food processor (fitted with the metal blade) rather than using my electric hand beaters like I usually do, and I loved the result. It was easier, less messy, and the frosting came out super smooth and creamy. It’s my go to method from now on.
tvfgi recommends: USA Baking Pans
I love my USA 9×13 pan, it’s sturdy, nonstick, and has a great solid feel to it. USA pans have no bells and whistles, they’re just good quality, durable cookware. My cakes cook up more evenly in this aluminized steel, with no overcooked edges like I sometimes get with glass. USA makes a whole line of bakeware and I’m slowly replacing all my pans. Plus, they’re made in the USA!
It was everything you (and several comments) promised! I’ve passed it on to my sisters, who’ve become your followers, too, just because of this cake (and its frosting)!
~ nancy
Blueberry Zucchini Snack Cake with Lemon Buttercream
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 pint blueberries, tossed in 1 tsp flour
lemon buttercream
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F
- Lightly grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan.
- Beat the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar until well blended. Fold in the zucchini.
- Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to combine. Slowly add it to the wet mixture, mixing just enough to blend.
- Fold in the blueberries, and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, just until the top is turning golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without wet batter clinging to it. Cool on a rack.
- To make the frosting, put the softened butter into the bowl of a food processor and process until creamy. Add the sifted powdered sugar, one cup at a time, processing till smooth after each addition. After the second cup of sugar add in the lemon juice. Scrape down the sides of the machine as necessary. Adjust the texture by adding a little more lemon or a little more sugar.
- Frost the cooled cake and store in the refrigerator.
Video
Cook’s notes
- Reader Lillia reports in the comments below that this cake can easily be made gluten free using King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour.
- I felt that this blueberry zucchini snack cake was at its best chilled, so I kept ours in the refrigerator. The frosting is butter-rich, so especially in warm weather this makes sense, and the texture of the chilled frosting is out of this world.
- For all your chocoholics out there, you really need to check out my Cold Chocolate Snacking Cake ~ it’s meant to be eaten straight from the fridge, and I guarantee you won’t be able to control yourself around it
422 Comments
Bob
June 29, 2022 at 11:35 amI love this cake. I’d like to make it more low carb. How do you think almond flour will work in this recipe? Should I completely swap out the regular flour, or use a combination of regular all-purpose flour with almond?
Thank you!
Sue Moran
June 29, 2022 at 11:53 amYou can use mostly almond flour, but if you can tolerate some wheat flour that will help bring structure to the cake.
Bob
June 29, 2022 at 12:11 pmExcellent — so, like 2 cups almond and 1 cup all purpose? I am trying to get a solid idea of how to proceed. — thanks so much for your guidance!
Sue Moran
June 29, 2022 at 12:47 pmThat sounds right. It’s always going to be a little bit of trial and error when you adjust recipes like this!
Bob
June 29, 2022 at 1:25 pmThanks very much….I hate to do it, but it can’t be helped!
Kathy
February 12, 2022 at 8:24 amLove this cake!?? I have frozen zucchini and it was squeezed before freezing, but of course it’s wet from thawing. The last cake I made was a bit dry, so I thought maybe I squeezed the zucchini too much. How dry does it need to be? Thanks. My husband LOVES this cake.
Sue Moran
February 12, 2022 at 9:14 amHi Kathy ~ glad you love this cake! I don’t squeeze my freshly grated zucchini, so if you’ve got wet frozen zucchini, try to squeeze it just enough to approximate the fresh grated, if that makes sense. You do want some moisture left in, but you don’t want it dripping wet.
Kathy
February 12, 2022 at 2:46 pmThank you I’ll let you know shortly. lol?
Kathi
September 21, 2021 at 7:44 amCould the cake be made ahead and frozen for a couple weeks? Then thaw and frost?
Sue Moran
September 21, 2021 at 11:48 amyes, that should work fine!
Megan
September 6, 2021 at 4:17 pmReally great recipe. I didn’t measure the zucchini and probably added too much because the cake smelled like zucchini. The lemon frosting is killer though. Couldn’t see anywhere in the recipe how much lemon juice to use. Used just under 1 lemon’s worth of juice. Will definitely make again.
Chris V
August 26, 2021 at 8:16 pmHow much lemon juice do you use in the frosting? It doesn’t say. thanks
Kristen P
August 26, 2021 at 8:28 amOh my goodness. I only recently discovered your recipes and now I worry I might have to stop making them. This snack cake is so delicious we cannot stop eating it!!!! My husband says it is his second-favorite cake (second only to German chocolate cake) and he is usually not a huge lover of sweets. Well done and thank you for another wonderful, easy recipe! (I followed Lois B Demerich’s guidance and cut the sugar in the cake by 1/4 cup, and that was perfect for us because we tend to prefer our desserts less sweet. I also cut the amount of frosting by 1/4 and that made enough to cover the whole cake with a thin layer.) Decadent!
Sue Moran
August 26, 2021 at 12:23 pmThanks Kristen, I’ll have to work on a German chocolate cake for your husband 🙂
Lois B Demerich
August 6, 2021 at 2:21 pmAbsolutely delicious moist cake. A summer favorite. I do cut back on the sugar in the cake just slightly and reduce the amount of icing on the cake as a personal preference. After sharing a recent bit of cake with a neighbor, she commented it was one of the best cakes she ever had! After 85 years of living that is quite a compliment. This cake will change the food selection opinion of any zucchini hater!
Chef Potpie
July 16, 2021 at 11:14 pmYou are my favorite food blogger and chef, just to get that out of the way. This cake is amazing! The buttercream is the “icing on the cake,” and you would laugh when my little grand daughters said, “YiaYia, we don’t like Yuccini!” So I just nodded and said, “Would you like to taste this cake with blueberries that I made for PeePaw?” Bite after bite they yummied until the entire piece was devoured. Then my daughter said, “ask YiaYia what is in that cake besides the blueberries.” I said, “ZUCCHINI!!” Well. Enough said. They are believers now!
Your recipes are always wonderful. hank you for sharing them with us!
Sue Moran
July 17, 2021 at 6:28 amSo glad everybody loved it, thanks!