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This Gluten Free Chocolate Courgette Cake is the ultimate way to use up a harvest of courgettes! A Gluten Free Courgette Cake packed with chocolate – the courgette (zucchini) makes it super fudgy and delicious.
If your garden is overrun with courgettes and you’ve never thought about baking them into a gluten free courgette cake, then stop everything you’re doing right now!
Once you’ve had them in savoury dishes like my Courgette and Lemon Risotto, Courgette Soup and Courgette and Halloumi Fritters, you have to try this chocolate courgette cake recipe.
Courgettes are perfect for baking! They add a lovely moisture to cakes without making them soggy and you can’t even taste them.
I especially love a chocolate courgette cake as it makes it super fudgy. And this cake also has buttermilk and melted chocolate for a rich flavour.
Courgette season runs from June until October in the UK. So this gluten free chocolate and courgette cake is perfect for a summer afternoon tea.
If you love this recipe, why not try some of my other gluten free loaf cakes, such as my gluten free lemon drizzle cake or my vegan gluten free banana bread.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Making this gluten free chocolate courgette cake only needs a few simple ingredients.
There’s a full printable recipe card below, but here are the main ingredients and ideas for any substitutions:
- Courgette / Zucchini: this cake uses around 150g of grated courgette. That’s approximately a small courgette, or half a large one. Yellow or green courgettes both work well in cake.
- Caster Sugar: also known as baker’s sugar or superfine sugar in the US.
- Vegetable Oil: it’s important to use a flavourless oil, such as vegetable oil or sunflower oil. You could also use melted butter but I find oil gives a better texture.
- Eggs: I use large UK eggs in this recipe so in the US you’ll need XL eggs.
- Gluten Free Self-Raising Flour: if you don’t have this, you can use a plain or all purpose flour and add 1 tsp baking powder per 100g of flour, plus a quarter of a teaspoon of xanthan gum. You want a free from flour blend, not a single flour.
- Cocoa Powder: Use unsweetened cocoa powder or even Dutch processed cocoa for a darker cake. Always sieve cocoa powder into the cake mix to get out any big lumps.
- Milk + Vinegar – this is my homemade version of buttermilk. You can use buttermilk if you have it. If not I use standard full-fat milk and apple cider vinegar. Lemon juice or white wine vinegar works just as in place of apple cider vinegar.
- Dark Chocolate – Melted dark chocolate adds a lovely, rich chocolatey flavour to this courgette cake. You can use milk chocolate if you want it a little sweeter.
You could also add some chocolate chips to this chocolate zucchini cake for an extra chocolate hit! Just make sure to use vegan chocolate if you want a dairy free recipe.
How to make chocolate courgette cake
This courgette and chocolate cake is super easy to make – it’s simply a cake of throwing everything together and baking it.
Preheat the oven to 180C / Fan 160C / Gas Mark 4. Line a 2lb loaf tin with a loaf tin liner and set to one side.
To make the buttermilk, mix the milk and apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl and leave for 5 minutes to curdle.
Coarsely grate the courgette and then, one handful at a time, squeeze as much of the liquid from it as possible (otherwise your cake will go soggy!).
You can either do this with your hands or by wrapping it in a clean tea towel and squeezing the liquid out through this.
Add the sugar, oil, milk/vinegar mixture and eggs to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 30 seconds until combined.
Add the courgette and melted chocolate and stir to mix with a wooden spoon or spatula. Sift in the gluten free flour and cocoa powder and fold in.
Don’t over-mix – just keep folding until there are no pockets of dry ingredients left. You should have quite a runny cake batter.
Pour the batter into the lined loaf cake tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 60-65 minutes until a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.
Storing and Freezing
Once made this cake will keep in an airtight container for 3-5 days. I do find with the fresh courgette it goes off quicker than other gluten free cakes.
You don’t need to refrigerate this chocolate courgette cake but in the summer months if may not keep for as long if it’s very warm.
Gluten free courgette cake also freezes really well which is great for avoiding any food waste if you’ve made too much.
To freeze, slice the cake up and separate the slices between pieces of baking paper. Freeze and then simply defrost a slice at room temperature whenever you fancy some.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some FAQs about this easy courgette cake recipe. If you can’t find the answer to your question here or in the post above, please comment and I’ll try answer!
If you’re not a fan of courgettes you might be wondering why on earth you’d cake them in a cake.
But trust me, you can’t even taste them – they just help add a lovely moisture.
It’s a bit like carrot cake doesn’t really taste of carrots – they just add a little something that makes it extra special.
So if you’re not entirely convinced, I urge you to give this a go before doubting!
The recipe for my chocolate gluten free courgette cake does contain dairy but can easily be adapted to be dairy free. I use oil in my recipe instead of butter, so the only thing that needs to be changed is the buttermilk.
To do this, use a dairy free milk of your choice in place of the milk in the recipe, such as almond milk or gluten free oat milk. Also ensure you double check the chocolate you’re using to make sure it is dairy free.
Most gluten free cakes go hard and stale when kept in the fridge. I’d recommend storing this courgette cake at room temperature, and freezing any slices if you think you won’t get through it all. The fresh courgette means this cake may go off sooner than other cakes, but it should be kept out of the fridge.
If you make this recipe and love it, please do let me know by tagging me on my Instagram or using #theglutenfreeblogger. You can also share your creations in my Facebook group! And please do leave a 5* review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to let others know you loved it too! It would mean the world to me and really helps support my website.
Gluten Free Chocolate Courgette Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g grated squeezed courgette, (zucchini)
- 175 g caster sugar
- 150 ml vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 175 g gluten free self-raising flour
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 100 ml milk
- 1/2 tbsp app cider vinegar
- 100 g melted dark choc
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C / Fan 160C / Gas Mark 4. Line a 2lb loaf tin with a loaf tin liner and set to one side. Mix the milk and apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl and leave for 5 minutes to curdle (this creates buttermilk).
- Coarsely grate the courgette and then, one handful at a time, squeeze as much of the liquid from it as possible (otherwise your cake will go soggy!).
- Add the sugar, oil, milk/vinegar mixture and eggs to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 30 seconds until combined.
- Add the courgette and melted chocolate and stir to mix with a wooden spoon or spatula. Sift in the gluten free flour and cocoa powder and fold in. Don't over-mix – just keep folding until there are no pockets of dry ingredients left. You should have a nice, runny batter.
- Pour the cake batter into the lined loaf tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 60-65 minutes until a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.
Notes
- Weighing Scales vs Cups: You can toggle this recipe card to convert the ingredients into cups. However, I always recommend using weighing scales – these are cheap to buy and much more accurate. And in gluten free baking, a tiny variation can make a huge difference!
- Dairy Free? Check out the blog post above for some simple swaps.
- Storing and Freezing: Check out the post above this recipe card for more information on storing and freezing this chocolate courgette cake.
- Like this Recipe? It would mean SO much to me if you could leave a 5* rating and tell all your gluten free friends about this Gluten Free Choc Courgette Cake!
Nutrition
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