This cake reminds me of summer. My parents always have a great garden in the summer and give me lots of zucchini. I love to make zucchini bread and when my mom gave me this recipe about 7 years ago, I knew it would be good too. I have been making it ever since. I like to shred a couple of zucchini, bag up the correct amounts and put it in the fridge or freezer to make this quickly.
Chocolate Zucchini Cake1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk, mixed with 1 Tbsp. vinegar (or buttermilk)
4 Tbsp. cocoa
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups shredded raw zucchini (with the peel)
1/2 cups chocolate chips ( or maybe more!)
The first thing you need to do is mix the 1 Tbsp. vinegar in the milk in a small bowl. Let it sit for a couple minutes on the side. You will notice it starts to make the milk curdle a little, that is exactly what you want. This is a substitute for buttermilk! If you happen to have buttermilk, you can skip this whole step - but it is nice to know a substitute, I have needed it often!
Next, cream the butter, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla in your mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients up to the zucchini and mix quickly. When the dry ingredients have mixed in, add the zucchini and mix well.
Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips! However many you like! Bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
Enjoy! It tastes great warm with a little bit of ice cream. But, I also love to eat it cold for breakfast - you cant go wrong!
