The Best Zucchini Dessert Recipes to Use Up Your Garden's Bounty
Because this mildly-flavored squash is good for *so* much more than zoodles.
Take a break from zoodles and use your fresh summer squash in these, our best zucchini dessert recipes. Celebrate the start of zucchini season with zucchini-carrot cake, then keep the fun going with zucchini desserts like zucchini cupcakes, bars, quick breads, and beyond.
Zucchini-Walnut Cake
Two medium-sized zucchini shred down to star inside this 9x13 dessert. Warmly-spiced and drizzled with a perky lemon syrup, there’s no need to fuss with frosting. This zucchini dessert recipe is sweet enough on its own, and is stunning in its simplicity. No zucchini blossoms? No need to skip this recipe—those accents are completely optional.
Zucchini-Banana Flaxseed Muffins
These fruit and veggie muffins will get you well on the way to your fiber quota for the day. (Thanks, whole-wheat flour, oats, and flaxseed meal.) But don’t let that scare you away! The sweetness of bananas, coziness from cinnamon, and mild and moist boost from shredded zucchini help these cupcake-like treats taste like they came straight from a decadent bakery. One BHG home baker agrees, noting, “I really enjoyed these muffins, and am very happy to have this recipe in my pocket!”
Lemon-Poppy Seed Zucchini Bread
Regular lemon-poppy seed muffins and breads are crowd-pleasing concepts on their own. So why not use that vehicle to hide zucchini for picky eaters—or to simply showcase the summer staple in a new way? This lemon-syrup-brushed beauty is infused with 2 cups of shredded squash. Alongside sour cream and a bit of oil, the water-rich zucchini makes this quick bread ultra-moist.
Zucchini-Carrot Cake
Carrot cake is a staple on nearly every single one of our spring menus. But why stop when Memorial Day arrives? The tail-end of root vegetable season overlaps nicely with early-season zucchini, so we brought those two garden pals together for one easy cake recipe. Walnuts, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg play major roles in the supporting cast of this zucchini dessert recipe. That being said, we’d be fibbing if we didn’t admit that the real star of the show is the honey-laced cream cheese frosting.
Low-Sugar Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
More than a cup of gut health-boosting oats and 1 cup of shredded zucchini go almost completely incognito in this zucchini dessert recipe. We incorporated a couple other wellness-minded modifications (replacing some of the sugar and butter with applesauce; opting for unsweetened cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate). While these single-serving chocolate cakes taste like they’re firmly in the “dessert” category, or on-staff dietitians definitely deem them healthy enough for breakfast! (Just pair a muffin with a couple hard-boiled eggs and a piece of fruit for a well-balanced meal.)
Related: These Low-Sugar Baking Tips Preserve the Tastiness of Your Treats
Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread
Even though this quick bread recipe has zero gluten (the protein found in some cereal grains, including wheat), each slice is packed with 6 grams of protein. That’s as much as 1 medium egg! The secret satisfaction-boosting ingredients? A carton of Greek yogurt, a scoop of vanilla protein powder, and a handful of chopped walnuts. Those elements make this oat-based gluten-free dessert recipe have some serious staying power. At the same time, the 2 cups of shredded squash see to it that each bite is tender and just as tasty as its gluten-full peers.
Carrot and Zucchini Bars
Featuring fruit (raisins), veggies (carrots and zucchini), and a dose of heart-healthy fat (walnuts), this zucchini dessert recipe checks all the boxes. Warm, aromatic ginger and vanilla, honey, brown sugar, and a citrusy cream cheese frosting sweeten the deal even more. “These bars are perfect,” one five-star reviewer raves. “It's a win-win, satisfy your sweet tooth and get some veggies.”
Related: How to Soften Cream Cheese Quickly for Smoother Cooking
Honey-Zucchini Bread
Granola shouldn’t be reserved for your breakfast bowl or travel snacks. The oat, nut, and seed blend—plus a scoop of walnuts or pecans—lend a craveable crunch factor to this fan-favorite quick bread. Since the honey dessert includes a whopping 2 ½ cups of shredded squash, it certainly lives up to its “zucchini dessert recipe” categorization.
Choco-Zucchini Cupcakes
It can be our little secret that this is a zucchini dessert recipe. With the rich chocolate cake base and luxurious nut butter frosting, each bite tastes surprisingly similar to those peanut butter cups we often reach for at the supermarket checkout. It’s rarely this easy to inspire the entire family, office, or potluck to enjoy eating zucchini. “These are perfection. I’ve been making these for years and they are highly requested,” one BHG fan says.
Zucchini-Olive Oil Cake
Mild olive oil in the batter keeps this zucchini cake recipe extra-moist. Layer it with fluffy homemade cream cheese frosting and top with fresh figs and olive leaves.
Zucchini-Oat Bread
This zucchini dessert/breakfast/anytime treat is such a winner, one fan wrote in to tell us she’s been making it frequently since we first shared it in 2008. Infused with subtle apple-cinnamon vibes from applesauce and the baking spice, this quick bread recipe has a tempting texture thanks to the rolled oats, raisins, and walnuts or pecans. Warm up a slice and slather with butter, apple butter, or whipped cream to make this one of the most enticing zucchini recipes around.
Related: The Best Substitutes for Butter to Preserve Flavor and Texture
Spiced Nuts and Zucchini Cornbread
While this is far from the traditional cornbread recipe you might score as part of your meat-and-three barbecue platter, it’s pretty close to perfect alongside any summer dinner idea, if you ask us. Cornmeal and canned creamed corn bring major harvest-time sweet corn flavor, as applesauce and shredded zucchini bake together to form a light crumb.
Test Kitchen Tip: To make this zucchini side dish shift more into dessert territory, omit the cheddar cheese and pair each slice with honey-cinnamon butter.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
We’re firm believers that there are few occasions in life that can’t be made better by chocolate. If you agree, you’ll swoon over these sweet slices. Classic cinnamon zucchini bread only gets better when you fold in dark chocolate pieces just before popping the pans in the oven. Then as the quick bread bakes, melt down even more dark chocolate to drizzle over the top.
Zucchini Cupcakes with Greek Yogurt Frosting
True, these cupcakes look and taste like a zucchini dessert recipe. But they’re jam-packed with superfoods. In addition to the shredded zucchini, these single-serving cakes are stoked with fiber-rich whole wheat flour, protein-packed quinoa and Greek yogurt, plus applesauce, which adds even more fiber and some vitamin C, all while subbing in for some of the sugar and oil. We’re taking that to mean that the only reasonable Rx is to have two!
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