It wouldn’t officially be August on the blog if I didn’t share another zucchini recipe with you… right?
Today’s recipe is a sweet one — literally!
It’s one of our family’s favorite sweet treats when zucchini are plentiful; and since it makes a fairly large batch, it’s something I regularly bring to potlucks, reunions, BBQ’s, or other parties this time of year!
If you love my Cream Cheese Frosted Banana Bars, you will probably love my Zucchini Banana Sheet Cake even more… because the sheet cake is thinner than the bars, which means a higher frosting-to-cake ratio. 🙂
And who doesn’t love homemade cinnamon cream cheese frosting??
If you’re looking for a way to use up zucchini, you really can’t go wrong with this Sheet Cake!
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Zucchini Banana Sheet Cake
If you love my Cream Cheese Frosted Banana Bars, you will love my Zucchini Banana Sheet Cake even more... because the sheet cake is thinner than the bars, which means a higher frosting-to-cake ratio. 🙂
And who doesn't love homemade cinnamon cream cheese frosting??
Ingredients
- 1/4 c. butter; softened
- 1 c. granular sugar
- 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
- 3 over-ripe bananas; mashed
- 1/2 c. milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 t. vanilla
- 2 c. flour (all purpose or whole wheat or 50/50 mix)
- 1 t. salt
- 1 t. baking soda
- 2 t. cinnamon
- 3 c. shredded zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)
- ----
- 1/2 c. butter; softened
- 5 ounces cream cheese
- 2 T. milk
- 1 t. vanilla
- 1/4 t. salt
- 1 t. cinnamon
- 3 c. powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease an 11"x17" sheet pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in applesauce, bananas, milk, eggs, and vanilla.
- Next add dry ingredients -- flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon. Mix until combined.
- Finally, fold the zucchini into the batter until incorporated.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.
- Let cool completely at room temperature.
While the cake bakes, make your frosting...
- In a medium bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, and milk until fluffy.
- Add salt, cinnamon and vanilla until combined.
- Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
- Spread frosting over cooled cake and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Yup, it tastes as good as it looks! All our kids love it (especially Clara!)
.
We eat TONS of roasted, grilled, and sautéed zucchini this time of years, and we also give LOTS of them away to neighbors, friends, family, etc. but whenever I feel like I have too much and it might start going bad, I simply shred it with a cheese grater or in the food processor.
Once it’s shredded, I squeeze out some of the water (using a colander) and freeze it in 2 or 3-cup portions for later. I can then use this pre-shredded zucchini all year long! (See below for several of our favorite zucchini recipes.)
More Zucchini Recipes!
I’ve shared 1 or 2 new zucchini recipe every year for the past 10 years… so there’s no reason your garden bounty should go to waste!
- Chicken, Zucchini, and Corn Pasta Bake
- Cheesy Zucchini Rice Casserole (so many veggies in this, especially if you use cauliflower rice)
- 3-Cheese Zucchini Lasagna Roll-Ups
- Vegetable Chowder (with tons of veggies)
- Vegetable Quiche (use veggies for the crust, and it’s gluten free!)
- Easy 10-Minute Zoodles (with grilled chicken or your favorite veggies)
- Chocolate Zucchini Brownies (with chocolate frosting!)
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Apple Cinnamon Zucchini Bread (with brown sugar topping)
- Zucchini Crisp (it literally tastes exactly like apple crisp, WITHOUT apples!)
OK, that should keep you busy in the kitchen (or the garden) for a while!
I’d love to learn about any new favorite zucchini recipes you have too!
Visit my virtual recipe box for more simple, delicious, family friendly, recipes!
Diana says
I made this today and it turned out really moist…like too moist! It didn’t bake all the way through and I ended up cutting it into slices and re-baking it. I made some changes- like only making half the recipe- but I think I mostly followed the recipe. I baked it much longer the first time. Anyway, I don’t know what happened to it! The re-baked parts were good 🙂
Andrea says
hmmm… it could just be differences in oven temp. Glad the re-baked parts were good! LOL!
J says
Thanks Andrea! This sheet cake looks like a yummy dessert to bring to a potluck or outing.
It would be nice if you could give suggestions like this for meals, veg dishes, casseroles for potlucks, outings…
Have a great day!
Andrea says
I wrote that post a few year ago 🙂
You can read it here!
J says
Thanks Andrea for getting back to me! I just looked at your yummy recipes, but fresh salsa goes to the semi baked beans recipe, instead of the salsa one, so you might want to check that out.
I use to make the semi baked beans for my kids, when they were younger, but put in cut up hotdogs too. Then popped in some crescent rolls in the oven, so it was a quick meal.
Have a great day and weekend coming up with your family!
Andrea says
ok thanks — I’ll change that tonight!
here is the real recipe for fresh salsa.
Michelle says
This looks absolutely delicious!!
I’m going to make this today and take some over to share with my mom & dad. I have a hard time “forcing” myself to make desserts for just my husband and myself because we either eat too much of it or it goes to waste. As I read this recipe I was thinking it could also be made into cupcakes/muffins…then frozen and taken out a few at a time in the future.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us today.
Andrea says
yes, it could definitely be made into muffins/cupcakes… and you can also freeze the bars already cut up (that’s what we do). So you can still just take a few out at a time. That’s how we do most of our desserts — pre-portioned and ready to go!
Michelle says
I came back to let you know I made this cake and shared it with my mom and dad. It got rave reviews. They loved it…as did my husband. So much so that he called me from work on his lunch today (I had packed 2 pieces for him) and told me, again, how delicious it was! He never does that!
Thanks again…so very much. This one is a keeper.
Andrea says
oh good — I’m thrilled you and your family liked it so much! That is a huge compliment if your hubby called just to tell you how good the cake was! thanks for sharing 🙂