This is the best Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread that is moist, rich, fudgy and tastes like actual chocolate cake! The recipe is super easy to make in one bowl and can be made gluten-free too! Serve with homemade caramel sauce, you’ll have the perfect dessert!

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread
If you’re not a fan of zucchini yet, this recipe will change your mind! I mean, look at how chocolatey, moist and rich this loaf looks but it tastes even better than that! I assure you, it is so incredibly delicious, no one will ever notice that it contains shredded zucchini.

Actually, the real secret behind the perfect texture of this super tasty chocolate zucchini bread is the hidden vegetables inside. Seriously veggies and fruits, such as pumpkin purée, mashed banana, apple sauce or zucchini add so much softness and moisture in any vegan bread or cake. If you’ve tried my moist carrot cake or best chocolate banana bread yet, you know what I am talking about.
Anyway, this is not only a really great way to get your greens but also to use up extra zucchini. The only thing you need to know before starting this recipe is if you double the recipe to make more than just one loaf. You should definitely keep in mind that this bread will be gone quicker than you can make the vegan caramel sauce for the topping!


How to make Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread
As mentioned before this recipe is very easy to make! And you know, what that means?! The easier and quicker the recipe, the more we love it, right? So let’s start making it!

All you need to make this veggie-loaded chocolate cake loaf are just a few simple basic ingredients, plus chocolate and zucchini, of course! You don’t need a food processor, mixer, blender or any special kitchen utensils, just a box grater. Actually, the batter comes together in less than 5 minutes! Just shred the zucchini, mix the ingredients, bake and enjoy!

Tips for perfect Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Sift the dry ingredients
I highly recommend sifting the dry ingredients because sifting prevents lumps of flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Actually, when you have lumps in the batter you’ll need to mix more as needed until the ingredients are combined. So you’ll tend to overmix which makes the cake tough. If you don’t have a sifter, simply place a regular fine sieve over a mixing bowl. Then add the dry ingredients into the sieve and sift the mixture into the bowl. Finally, give it a good whisk making sure that all of the ingredients are well combined.






Melt the chocolate or just add chocolate chips
To make the zucchini bread more fudgy like brownies you can melt the chocolate over a water bath before adding it into the batter. But if you love melty pockets of chocolate in fluffy cake slices, I recommend to just fold in chopped chocolate. That is totally up to you! Anyway, if this triple chocolate thing is too much goodness for you, you can easily omit the chocolate chips on top.

Prepare your baking pan for easy removal!
Please make sure to prepare the baking pan properly to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan. First, lightly grease your loaf pan with vegan butter. Secondly, line it with additional parchment paper, leaving some paper overhanging. The overhanging paper is super helpful when you want to remove the cake after baking. Simply grab it and lift out the entire cake easily!






How to get the ultimate chocolate flavor
For the ultimate double chocolate flavor, I recommend using both natural unsweetened cocoa powder and vegan chocolate inside the batter. Please make sure to use NO dutch cocoa for the best results. And oh, if you want a triple chocolate zucchini cake loaf, do not forget the vegan chocolate chips on top, haha! Also, I recommend adding a bit of instant coffee or espresso powder.

Why coffee in chocolate cake?
Adding a bit of espresso or coffee powder is actually the key to the perfect chocolate cake because it makes the chocolate flavor more intense. However, this addition is just optional but I definitely recommend that since you won’t taste the coffee in the chocolate zucchini cake. Rather, the espresso or coffee powder just brings the chocolate flavor to the next level!


This vegan chocolate zucchini bread is
- Vegan (Egg-free & Dairy-free)
- Soft, Moist
- Loaded with veggies
- Rich in chocolate flavor
- Easy & quick to make
- Requires just a few ingredients
- Tastes like healthier chocolate cake
- So delicious!
- The perfect breakfast, dessert or snack

Want to make a sheet cake, muffins or cupcakes?
Since this chocolate zucchini bread recipe is super versatile you can easily make it into a sheet cake or muffins and cupcakes. The baking time may vary, depending on the baking pan you use but you can find any information in my recipe notes. Anyway, I highly recommend doing a cake test – always! – no matter what cake you bake because all ovens often vary in power and temperature.
How to serve chocolate zucchini bread
I kept my chocolate zucchini cake loaf simple and just topped it with vegan chocolate chips. That way, I find it’s easier to store and take away to work, school, university or to wherever you want to go! Also, I love when I can serve it with different toppings, such as vegan caramel sauce or melted peanut butter and banana or vegan ice cream. Anyway, if you want to make a smooth, and creamy chocolate frosting or just a simple chocolate ganache instead, feel free to do that!

For more vegan chocolate cake recipes be sure to check out my
- Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Best Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Vegan Snickers Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Banana Pancakes
- Chocolate Raspberry Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Banana Pancakes
- Best Vegan Brownies

If you do try this Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake Loaf Recipe, please leave me a comment below sharing how it turned out for you! And if you take a picture of your chocolate treat and share it on Instagram, please do not forget to tag me @biancazapatka #biancazapatka because I love seeing your recreations!

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Author:You do not have a fitting cake pan at hand right now? Try my Cake Pan Conversion Calculator!
Ingredients
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 160, or sub gluten-free flour*
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder 50g
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk 60ml
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp neutral oil 100ml, such as grapeseed or canola, or sub melted coconut oil or vegan butter*
- 3/4 cup organic cane sugar* 150g, or to taste
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder or 1/4 tsp espresso powder*, optional
- 1 ripe mashed banana or sub 1/2 cup apple sauce or 2 flax-eggs *see recipe notes
- 8,8 oz shredded zucchini makes about 1 heaped cup after squeezing
- 1 cup vegan chocolate chips 150g, or chopped chocolate
Topping (optional)
- more vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- *Note: I highly recommend watching the recipe video to see how easy it is!
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F (175˚C). Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper so that there is an overhang on both sides (*as shown in the pics above).
- Sift the flour, cornstarch, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl and whisk together.
- To a measuring jar add the non-dairy milk, oil, sugar, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, coffee powder and mashed banana (or another egg substitute *see recipe notes). Mix to combine.
- Pour this mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Then fold in shredded zucchini (make sure it is slightly squeezed) and chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate or melted chocolate *see text above). The batter should be thick but still pourable as shown in the step-by-step pics. If it’s too thick add a tiny bit more non-dairy milk.
- Fill the batter into your prepared pan. Optionally, top with more chocolate chips. Bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean with some melted chocolate chips attached.
- Let cool in the pan completely. Then using the parchment paper to lift out the loaf carefully.
- Slice and enjoy with caramel sauce if you like!
Notes
- Instead of banana, you can sub 1/2 cup apple sauce or 2 flax-eggs. To make the flax-eggs, mix 2 tbsp ground flaxseeds + 6 tbsp warm water in a small bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken. (If you’re not vegan, you can sub 2 regular eggs).
- I recommend using all-purpose flour or a blend of whole wheat and all-purpose flour. To make this chocolate zucchini bread gluten-free, use a gluten-free flour blend 1:1. (If using another flour, such as oat flour or whole grain flour, keep in mind that your chocolate zucchini bread won’t get as soft as when using a lighter flour. Also, please make sure to adjust the liquid by adding more non-dairy milk, if needed, because different flours absorb different amounts of liquid).
- You can use any sweeteners you like, such as maple syrup, agave syrup, coconut sugar or other.
- You can’t taste the coffee but it makes the chocolate flavor more intense.
- The bread freezes well for up to 3 months. Just make sure to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag to avoid freezer burn. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving.
- You can turn this recipe into muffins and bake for about 25-30 minutes or cupcakes and bake for about 20 minutes. If you want to make a sheet cake in a brownie pan the baking time will be about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean with some melted chocolate attached.
- Please make sure to do a cake test since all ovens vary in power and temperature.
- You can find more helpful information about this recipe in my blogpost above.
IF YOU HAVE PINTEREST, YOU CAN FIND ME HERE AND FEEL FREE TO PIN THE FOLLOWING PICTURES! 🙂


©Bianca Zapatka | All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post for the recipe. More info here. Thank you for supporting biancazapatka.com!

This page may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you. You can find more information here.
Really loved this one, will be adjusting and trying some new variations soon. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you like this recipe. Thank you! 🙂
Hallo 🙂
Habe das Rezept heute ausprobiert. Der Kuchen hat eine perfekt saftige Konsistenz und ist superlecker schokoladig. Den werde ich gewiss noch einige Male machen 😀 Vielen Dank hierfür 🙂 LG Isa
Das freut mich wirklich sehr! Vielen lieben Dank! 🙂
Great recipe! A little on the dark side for my liking, so I’ll reduce the cocoa powder to 1/3 C next time. I don’t have an oven so I put everything in my bread machine in the order listed and it still turned out delicious. Will definitely make this again!
Thanks, that makes me happy! ☺️
A great cake/ bread, thank you Bianca! I am from Australia but we were in Germany this year and it was nice to know you are from there. Reminded me of the beautiful places in Germany we visited. And there are more vegan choices in the supermarket there I noticed. Thanks again for your tasty recipe!
Glad you like it! Thank you! ☺️
Hello!
I wanted to spare myself the effort of grating the zucchini/courgette, so I put it in the blender. Of course it became soup. So I added the completely babyfood-like courgette and left the plant based milk out. And guess! The browny is amazing, really creamy and there’s no guess of the courgette while I saved myself the effort of grating and squeezing it. I could recommend!
Thank you so much! 🙂
Glad you love it! ♡
Made it a second time this way. Just blender the courgette and add it to the dry ingredients. Leave out the plant based milk instead. It took me precisely 20 minutes to make this cake and it was simply amazing. Our guests loved it! Didn’t tell them it was vegan and didn’t tell them it had courgette in it… but they didn’t notice both!
I’d say the blended courgette makes the cake so silky-soft and creamy that it melts on your tongue, even though it’s a real cake. If you put it in the fridge, it becomes a bit firmer.
Glad everyone loved it! 🙂
Thanks for your feedback! ♡
Wonderful recipe! I decided to make 6 mini loaves instead on one big one. Baked for 40 minutes. I used half the amount of sugar and gluten free flour. So perfectly decadent and delicious. I just started working on a veggie farm, with abundant amounts of zucchini available. Made and took to my new coworkers. They were impressed! Loved it so much they ‘encouraged’ me to make again as soon as possible. Which I’m doing right this very moment. FYI, didn’t even make the caramel sauce. In my opinion it was perfectly sweet without it. Thank you for a wonderful, and life long, recipe 🙂
Thank you so much! 🙂
Glad you love it! ♡