Fans of zucchini bread will love brown butter zucchini cake. This layered cake is frosted with caramel cream cheese and drizzled with salted caramel.
Can I offer you slice of my belated birthday cake? Is two months too late to celebrate a birthday? Okay, scratch that. We’re celebrating the fact that I completed another half marathon. (Check out my picture on Instagram.)
Hip hip hooray! Woot, woot!
Zucchini Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Why make the same old zucchini bread when you can a stunning 5 layer zucchini cake?!
Don’t be fooled. Yes, this cake is jam packed with zucchinis… but it’s hardly healthy.
It’s a brown butter zucchini cake with salted caramel cream cheese frosting and a heavy drizzle of salted caramel on top. I wish that sounded healthy, however, it is absolutely fabulous and delicious!
The secret to this zucchini cake is brown butter.
Brown butter is a truly wonderful friend to have in the kitchen.
It makes baked goods taste nutty without any nuts, it makes kitchens and homes spell amazing without any artificial air fresheners, and obviously it makes for the BEST pasta ever (see Brown Butter Spaghetti with baby kale and roasted butternut squash).
Cream Cheese Frosting
Like zucchini bread, this zucchini cake is moist but a whole lot tastier because of the brown butter. I’ve paired it with a simple cream cheese frosting sweetened with homemade salted caramel.
I used the caramel recipe from this banana cake with whipped caramel. If you are not up to making caramel, high quality store bought caramel also works.
The recipe will yield three 6-inch cakes. I split each cake in half to create a total of six cake layers. However, I only used five layers to build the cake. I like to reserve one layer for taste-testing (but mostly, snacking).
Brown Butter Zucchini Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
- 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- 4 large eggs, room temp
- 1 pound shredded zucchini, about 3 cups packed
Whipped Salted Caramel:
- ¾ cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 3 Tbsp water
- ½ cup heavy cream, heated
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup + 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened, cut into tablespoons
Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- whipped salted caramel
- 2 cup confectioners' sugar
- pinch kosher salt
Instructions
Cake:
- Place butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pot. Melt butter over medium heat. Once butter is melted, continue to cook over medium low heat until butter has browned and is fragrant.
- During this cooking process, the butter will foam up. Swirl the pan occasionally to check for doneness. Carefully watch the butter because it can quickly burn and blacken. When it is done it will smell nutty. Pour the brown butter into another container and allow it to cool down. (If you want to speed up the process, let it chill in the fridge for 10 minutes or freezer for 5 minutes.)
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter three 6-inch cake pans and line bottom with parchment paper. Set side.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream cooled brown butter with sugar and brown sugar. Mix until sugar is thoroughly moistened. Add eggs one at a time and continue to mix on low.
- Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Scrape down down as needed to ensure thorough mixing.
- Add shredded zucchini and mix until evenly distributed.
- Divide cake batter between the three prepared cake pans. Level out batter using the back of spoon or a mini offset spatula. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Let cool for 5-8 minutes before molding. Let cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
Whipped Salted Caramel:
- Using a heavy bottomed sauce pot, heat sugar and water on high heat. Let sugar melt. Do not stir or agitate mixture to prevent unwanted crystallization.
- Lower heat and allow sugar syrup to color. Remove from heat one syrup is aromatic and amber in color.
- Warm up heavy cream in the microwave for 45 seconds. Add about ⅓ of warm cream to sugar syrup and whisk. BE VERY CAREFUL. The mixture will bubble and steam vigorously. Add remaining warm cream and continue to whisk until mixture has slightly cooled.
- Add butter and salt. Whisk until mixture is homogenized. Let cool to room temperature. Reserve about ½ cup of caramel. Transfer remaining cooled caramel to the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment.
- Whip caramel on medium speed for 5-10 minutes until caramel has thickened to the consistency of buttercream and is much lightly in color. Set aside until ready for frosting.
Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Scrape down bowl as needed.
- Add whipped caramel. Mix to combine. Add powdered sugar and salt. Mix until smooth.
- Using reserved caramel to drizzle on top of finished cake.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
I only have 9in cake pans and am looking to make a two layer cake. Can I keep the amounts in the recipe the same or will there not be enough batter?
You can use the recipe to make two 9-inch cake rounds. You will have to adjust baking time. It will cook faster since the cake layers will be thinner.
Thank you thank you thank you!!! I finally found the ultimate zucchini cake recipe!!! AND the whole house is smelling mouthwateringly (?! is that a word??) good!
Yay!I’m glad you like it!
Quick question — I’m assembling a masterpiece for my friend’s going away party and I love the idea of incorporating some veggies.
Can you taste/tell the zucchini is in the cake?
Also, do you shred the zucchini and leave all the liquid, or do you strain any of it out?
You’ll be able to see the little specks of zucchini in the cake. You can’t really taste the zucchini flavor, it gets masked by the sugar. Shred the zucchini right before you make the batter. Do not shred it ahead of time. I used the shredding blade in a food processor. When I made it, the zucchini did not expel any liquid. If you end up with liquid, simply strain it out. Hope that helps!
Yes! This cake is so perfect! What a great way to celebrate a belated birthday AND a half marathon! You totally deserve it. Plus, it is considered guilt-free in my book because of the zucchini. Pinned!
this cake looks amazing!! and congrats on the half marathon! i’ve done the Disney Princess in Orlando twice and I’m convinced Disney races are THE BEST!
Thanks Katie! That’s awesome! And yes, agree- Disney marathons are the best. I’ve ran other ones and they’re not as well organized. I’m actually running the Disney Princess next year. I’m hoping to complete the Coast-to-Coast.
Bahaha – this post made me laugh several times. And this cake!? Omgergawd. I can’t emphasize you how sad I am that California is such a big state and we live so far apart.
Also, you totally earned this cake (post hoc)!
Thanks Sarah! Don’t worry, I’ll be up north to visit one day! ;)
OH MY. This looks AMAZING. I’m putting this on my summer baking list!
Thanks Rachel! :) I can’t wait for you to make it!