Banana Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Fruity, moist and delicious, this banana and zucchini cake is loaded crushed pineapple and lightly sweetened with honey.
Banana and Zucchini Cake
It’s zucchini season which makes me super excited to make bread and muffins with zucchini! A favorite is this Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread which my daughter loves. But for dessert, I loved how moist and delicious this easy sheet cake turned out lightly sweetened with honey thanks to the natural sweetness of the pineapples and ripe bananas.
How To Make Banana Zucchini Cake
Helpful Tips:
- I tested this with a blend of whole wheat and white flour as well as gluten-free with Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Mix and it turned out delicious both ways.
- If you wish to keep it dairy free, simply omit the frosting, it will still be delicious!
- Refrigerate leftovers
Zucchini Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Fruity, moist and delicious, this banana and zucchini cake is loaded crushed pineapple and lightly sweetened with honey.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2/3 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups mashed ripe bananas, from 5 small
- 8 ounce zucchini, grated and squeezed well
- 8 ounce can crushed pineapple in juice, drained well
For the Frosting:
- 8 oz 1/3-less fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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Instructions
- To prepare frosting, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13x9x2-inch nonstick metal pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and spices; stir well with a whisk.
- In a medium bowl, combine honey, oil, eggs, and vanilla; stir well. Add zucchini, banana and pineapple; mix well.
- Fold wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix well with a spatula until combined.
- Spoon batter into the sheet pan.
- Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely on a wire rack.
- Spread frosting over the cake once cooled and cut into 16 pieces.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice, Calories: 172kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 3.5g, Fat: 5.5g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 27mg, Sodium: 297.5mg, Fiber: 1.5g, Sugar: 18g
Blue Smart Points: 6
Green Smart Points: 5
Purple Smart Points: 4
Points +: 5
Keywords: Banana Zucchini Cake, zucchini banana cake, zucchini cake, zucchini cake recipe, zucchini sheet cake
This is our current favorite of your very moist cakes, Gina. Only problem, we want a larger serving. ☺️ So I further reduced the calories by eliminating honey (replaced with 1/2 cup monk fruit) and oil (replaced with low fat buttermilk). I added more buttermilk if the batter still appeared too dry. The cake is just so darn good you don’t need the frosting as other reviewers have said. But a squirt of low fat whipped cream isn’t bad.
Hopefully the changes didn’t alter the integrity of the recipe. And I’m not saying how many serving we got from this cake….
I made this as cupcakes. For dietary reasons, I substituted 1/3 cup of monk fruit sweetener instead of the honey. They were delicious! No need for frosting. They make a wonderful breakfast muffin, and they are just as good a couple of days later.
I can’t wait to try this! One question: I have no idea how much my zucchini weighs.Any idea how many cups of shredded zucchini this comes out to, before or after squeezing the water out?
I just took a large zucchini that weighed close to 8 ounces. Grate it and squeeze out the water. I don’t think that it needs to be exact. It came out great.
Moist, easy to make. A definite winner. I’ll make this again and again.
I made them into cupcakes, I was too lazy to make the frosting. They were great, my husband is picky and refuses to eat them, but a friend who hates almost everything ate 3. Of them and said they were great! Will make again and make the frosting
I thought it was very good. I made 12 cupcakes and cooked for 30 minutes. Only thing I think I’ll do next time is add walnuts,
A helpful tip for anyone making the frosting: note that you will not achieve a white frosting as in the picture if you add 2 teaspoons of regular vanilla, as indicated in the recipe. It will be a definite (unattractive) off-white due to adding that much vanilla. If you want a true white frosting, you’ll need to use clear vanilla. Hoping to save someone from throwing out a batch as I did since it was such an ugly shade.
I’m not understanding why when I plug in the nutrition information into WW app, it makes this 8 Points on the purple plan when its listed on this site as being 4….?
Try using the recipe builder instead. 🙂
I was very encouraged by the many positive reviews, but this missed the mark for me. Came out like a banana-zucchini bread hybrid rather than a cake. The frosting, even with the sugar and extract, just felt like cream cheese rather than frosting. Definitely eats like diet food and left me feeling like something was missing.
Deliciously moist and full of flavor. I love the texture created by the pineapple, & zucchini, along with added fiber of the banana. Put it all together and you get an amazing cake.
The first time I made this, I squeezed out too much of the liquid from the zucchini and pineapple, and the cake was dry. This time I showed a little more restraint, and the cake was moist and delicious…scrumptious! 😋
Thank you for sharing this tip! Will give it a try.
Question: is the zucchini weighed before or after draining the water? Thank you!
Wow. Nearly speechless. This was perfection. So soft and moist and full of delicious flavor. I skipped the frosting because I couldn’t wait, couldn’t be bothered and don’t need the extra calories when it’s already perfect as is. I also halved the recipe so that I wouldn’t be tempted to eat too much (very very very good call – the amount of willpower right now not to put my face in the pan and eat it all in one go is quite a thing to behold, but anyway) and baked it in a smaller rectangle glass baking dish (7.5″ x 11″) for 20 minutes.
Man oh man!! This is absolutely delicious!!! My husband who hates all veggies loved this cake! I made it exactly as written and turned out beautifully. I really wasn’t prepared for it, it so similar to carrot cake. I can’t wait to make it again for my mom!
Can something be substituted for the pineapple like apple sauce?
So we would just use 1&1/2 cups of gluten free flour instead or do we need to use 3/4 cup gf and 3/4 cup something else? Thanks!
Can I replace the banana with something else?
Hi, could this receipe be made in a loaf pan?
Thanks
Hi would I be able to make this in a bread pan instead?
This turned out beautifully. Moist and delicious with or without the frosting. Love that there’s no added sugar. Make it, you won’t be
disappointed.
Our celiac family loved this cake made with Bob’s 1 to 1 GF flour. For ease and time I mixed all the dry ingredients in my food processor and poured into a bowl. Next, I, shredded the zucchini removed to a towel , rolled, then twisted to remove excess moisture. And let it sit while added the banana and pulsed to make a fairly smooth consistency. Then all the wet ingredients were added until blended and finally added the zucchini with a few pluses to chop it up a bit more. Add the wet ingredient to the dry and continue per recipe. I must admit, I added more powdered sugar to the frosting, although it probably wasn’t necessary..
Can this be baked in a glass dish 13 x 9? I don’t own a metal baking pan that size.
Gina, could you please explain something in the nutritional section. Some times it says 4 SP + 5 calories ….or 3 SP + 3. I not sure how to interpret this. LOVE your recipes!
Gina,
Can I use applesauce in place of pineapple? If yes, how much . Thank you
Janelle
So good. I brought some of the cake into work. Coworkers liked it. I used all white whole wheat flour. The cake tastes better the 2nd and 3rd day.
The cake came out great! It was moist and delicious. The frosting was a little sparse, in other words, not quite enough to put a good layer over the cake, but good flavor contrast with the sweetness of the cake.
My cake was too wet. I am wondering if I added too much zucchini. I drained the pineapple and squeeze the water out of the zucchini.
Sounds like it, did you use the same amount?
Same thing happened to me. I don’t know what I did wrong.
Made this tonight. Without frosting. It’s the first time ever when I’m doing a cake with zucchini, but I’m sure it’s not the last. This cake it’s amazing. Everyone in my family love it. Last weekend was https://www.skinnytaste.com/yogurt-chocolate-chip-muffins/, a hit too. Thank you very much for your recipes.
Made as written and this was delicious! For us it could actually do with less honey (my bananas were extremely ripe/sweet) and while the cream cheese frosting is a favorite of mine, this cake is good enough to go without!
Made this last night and it was a hit! I only needed four bananas, and took it out a few minutes early. Everyone loved it, even though it’s so hot here right now that the frosting melted off. ?
This was amazing. Definitely like a summer version of carrot cake. I made it for my husband’s birthday and we’ve been loving it. Thank you Gina!
Ridiculously good! Love Gina and her amazing healthy recipes. 🙂
made this yesterday for a picnic. it was good but the middle part collapsed. what did l do wrong. used a disposable 9×13
Did you drain the zucchini well? Correct amount of zucchini?
I absolutely love this recipe! Gina what did you use to squeeze a zucchini? I did it by hand and not sure if i squeezed it enough.
Made this tonight and it’s wonderful! Turned out just like the photos. So rich and flavorful, and MY KIDS ATE ZUCCHINI!!!!
Awesome!
Tried this over the weekend and it was LOVED by all!! I added some candied ginger that I minced up, and it was a moist spice cake. The men never knew about the zucchini and thought it was a decadent cake! Thank you!!
I made this tonight and it was so wet that the interior of the cake never baked. It formed a lovely brown crust on the top and bottom. It was in the oven for 50 minutes. But I ended up having to scrape it out of the pan in a mushy lump. I drained the pineapple and squeezed the zucchini out, but it was just too wet. I didn’t make any alterations to the recipe. Any thoughts on what went wrong?
Just made and these and love them! I made into muffins for easy grab and go snacks
Used just 1/3 cup of maple syrup instead of the 2/3 cuos honey and got 22 muffins making them 2 points each!
They are plenty sweet enough and lovely and moist!
Perfect!
Sounds like what I’m planning! Were they mini muffins? And how long did you cook them?
This is so well timed and such an excellent recipe! Thank you!! I made this last night as a dozen muffins with the following subs based on what I had at home already:
Monk fruit for honey (same vol)
Unsweetened applesauce for oil (same vol)
2 bananas instead of 2 cups (which was just because I misread!)
+ a handful of dark chocolate chips
– frosting (no cream cheese on hand)
[cals/muffin 94, carbs 27g, fat 2g, protein 3g]
How long did you bake them for as muffins?
I am picking zucchini by the bushels with no end in sight. I have shared a lot of zucchini bread with family and friends. They will be thrilled that I have found a new zucchini recipe. ? Thank you for sharing!
What can substitute for pineapple…so allergic to it?
Was wondering if you could cook this as a bread instead of a sheet cake. If so, what changes in temperature and cook time would you recommend. Thanks so much! It looks really good!
Help!
My daughter is allergic to pineapple – do you have a suggestion for a replacement
Thanks
Perhaps more banana? Without testing I don’t want to steer you wrong.
FYI, I just used the WW online food list to find the Frosting ingredients: the cream cheese was a total of 24 freestyle points (FSP), and the powdered sugar is 7 FSP for a total of 31, divided by 16 servings = 1.9375 FSP that can be reduced from the per serving points!!!! Yeah!!!!
Going to buy some flour and get baking!!!
This looks delicious !! How would the nutritional info/WW smart points for Freestyle change is the icing was omitted ??? No one in my family likes icing ..thanks so much !
Sorry, I don’t have that info handy.
I’m wondering about making it low carb with a mix of almond and coconut flour…thoughts?
Coconut flour will make it too wet. Almond flour is too dense. When I was Paleo, substituting those flours with a regular non paleo recipe never worked out b/c the liquids and oils need to be adjusted too.
I’d love to try it with grain free flours. I wonder if half almond/half tapioca starch would work. I have had good luck with that combo replicating regular flour.
could this freeze well without the frosting? Or even with?
sure!
Why is this coded as a gluten free recipe? It calls for all-purpose and whole wheat flour!
If you look in the narrative of the recipe under tips… “I tested this with a blend of whole wheat and white flour as well as gluten-free with Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Mix and it turned out delicious both ways.”
So does that mean 2 cups of bob mills gluten free flour?
Tthe amount of flour actually stays the same for Bob’s GF flour so it would come to 1 1/2 cups.
Do you have to use a metal cake pan? I have glass of the same size and really don’t want to buy another pan.
I was taught that if you substitute glass for metal, you should reduce the temp by 25 degrees. But I’m not sure if that is a “written-in-stone” rule, or just a guideline?! Anyone know for sure?
I don’t bake as much as I cook, but am certainly going to make this bread (without the frosting–would be too sweet for me!!)!!!! -db
This sounds delicious! Can you use only white flour and not mix white and wheat?
yes
Is there anything I can use to substitute the eggs? My daughter is allergic =(
you could use a flax egg or some aqua fava
This recipe sounds perfect for our 4th of July celebration gathering! I’m not clear on what size sheet pan..I have a 13″ x 10″. That size or larger? Thanks for your clarification.
Gael Shipstad
“Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13x9x2-inch nonstick metal pan with cooking spray. “
I would like to know if the zucchini can be replaced with carrot.
You can try!
The recipe says 9x13x2. I think your pan should be fine but maybe bake a few minutes less?
I have been looking for a good smash cake recipe for my daughter’s first birthday that is not full of processed stuff and this looks like it will be perfect!!
Great! Hope she has a happy birthday!
How many zucchini is 8oz about?
about 1 medium
Would Cup4cup flour work in this recipe?
yes!
i was wondering if one could substitute Agave for honey, or have you tried using Agave sweetener in any recipes?
I always use agave in place of honey and it works great for me!
Thinking of making ahead of time without the frostin and freezing it. Then when ready to use, defrost for the day and then apply frosting? What’s everyone think!?
Sure
Could you use something else in place of honey, like unsweetened applesauce or non fat yogurt?
it needs a sweetener. Maple syrup or agave?
Hi Gina,
This looks delicious! Can you substitute sugar for honey? If so, would it be 2/3 cup or less? Thanks!
I just googled this and found this: The Rule: For every 1 cup of sugar, substitute 1/2 to 2/3 cup honey.
How many points if no frosting?
4 SP
Is it possible to change the bananas by something else ????
Sure but without testing it myself, I can’t guarantee the results.
pumpkin
Or applesauce
Is there any substitute for the pineapple, this sounds amazing but I’m allergic.
Perhaps more bananas?
I’m in the same boat and also allergic to apples. Was thinking just extra bananas.
Can you make this with just egg whites?
I hate dry cakes, but this recipe is anything but that with the zucchini, honey, banana, and pineapple! YUM 🙂
Do you think this would work replacing the zucchini with carrot? The recipe almost looks like a sunshine carrot cake.
I myself have done just all zucchini, just all carrots and even have done 1/2&1/2 to the measure amount! To bring it up a notch can add choc chips & if not allergic can add nuts too . I usually do 1/2 cup measurements! That’s ( 1/2C nuts Chopped )
I omit pineapple, I don’t care for pineapple baked in cakes
Just my preference. But do like pineapple.