Chocolate Kefir Zucchini Cake
The first week of July is birthday week at our house. We have two birthdays. My son DJ was born July 1st and then my youngest Holli has her birthday on the 3rd. Then the very next day is the 4th of July. Three special days all in one week. Everybody wants something special this week.
This is one of the cakes I make a lot in the summer when there’s a lot of fresh zucchini available. Lots of birthdays means lots of cake and there is always a lot of zucchini in my garden!
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup coconut oil
- 1 cup Kefir
- 3 Tbsp Cacao or cocoa powder
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup maple syrup
- ½ tsp Celtic sea salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2½ cups of spelt sprouted flour * see note if you don’t have sprouted flour
- CHOCOLATE CHIPS
- 3 ounces of organic chocolate chips or cacao chocolate chips
- ¼ cup of kefir
Instructions
- Cream butter and oil together.
- Add next 6 ingredients to butter and oil.
- Combine dry ingredients together in separate bowl.
- Add one cup of dry ingredients at a time and mix till well combined about 2 minutes.
- Pour into 9X13 greased baking pan.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees. If you want to bake it in bundt pan increase baking time by 10 minutes.
- CHOCOLATE KEFIR TOPPING
- Place 3 ounces of chocolate in double broiler pan and place on low heat and stir until melted. Remove from heat and when chocolate is warm, but not hot, about 100 degrees or less.
- Add ¼ cup of kefir and stir till well combined.
- Drizzle chocolate kefir over cake.
Notes
*Not everybody is going to have sprouted flour. You know the commercial I’d Like to buy the world a coke? Well I would like to buy the world-sprouted flour. It is hands down the best and most nutrient dense way to eat wheat. But if you don’t have access to it or don’t have equipment to make it your self, here is what I would recommend. A lot of people would soak their flour in the kefir overnight and then make the cake making sprouted flour. I have never done this with this cake so I do not know what the results would be. But I think that would be a good option. I do want to say this making this cake with sprouted flour is 10 times better than using regular flour. But going to the store and buying regular spelt flour and making this cake is a thousand times better than buying a cake at the store. They have hydrogenated oils and preservatives and chemicals and are so much better if you make it yourself, with or without sprouted flour. There are still a ton of nutrients in this cake and a million times better than a store-bought cake. Never under-estimate the love you put into this cake by trying to make something healthy for your family. Love trumps it all!!
How do you make the chocolate kefir topping?
It’s in the recipe. In step number 7 in the instructions.
Maybe I’m missing something but it says to put the chocolate in a double boiler and place on low heat and stir until melted. Are you refering to the 3 Tbsp of cacao. Or is there a chocolate bar involved.
I was updating this recipe last night and see I forgot the ingredients for the topping. Thanks for telling me! I added them back.
Will sprouted wheat flour work as well? I happen to have that but not the sprouted spelt.
Thanks for your reply!
Yes sprouted wheat flour works great.
I just made this for the first time! YUMMY!! I followed your suggestion to soak my spelt flour in the kefir overnight and it seems fine to me. Thank you for posting this!
Can I use an all purpose gluten free flour in place of the spelt flour?
You can try it but I haven’t used this so I am not sure of the results.
Add a little more flour if it was gummy. It was probably from the moisture in the zucchini.
Looks yummy!! I am making this tomorrow! since i don’t have sprouted flour, i will soak my flour in kefir tonight so it’s ready for tomorrow.
Question?
In your special comments; do you mean that just using wheat flour or spelt flour soaked in the kefir overnight will make it “sprouted” flour? Or, do you mean that one needs to use sprouted flour soaked in the kefir overnight before finishing the cake so that the healthy fermentation process will begin prior to baking the cake? I have another cake recipe that says to soak the wheat flour and kefir for 12 hours and then add the rest of the ingredients and make the cake. This will make some healthy fermentation happen.
Thank you for your reply as I am unclear about exactly what you are saying.
Arlyne
When you use sprouted flour it is already fermented and does not need to be soaked. I have not made this recipe with soaked flour, so I do not know how it would turn out. What I was saying is that it is better to make something homemade with regular un sprouted spelt flour than to buy something processed.