Monday Munchies: Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I have been thinking I would love to start posting recipes on here once, maybe twice a week if possible!  For now we will start with the Monday Munchies first edition and see how it goes!

This recipe has been loved for years around here! It is delicious and an excellent way to use up your zucchini this time of year!  I will post the recipe as it is written first, then I will tell you my changes.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

 

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup veg. oil

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups grated zucchini

2 1/2 cups flour

4 Tbsp. baking cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 cups chocolate chips

- Cream butter/oil/sugar

- add eggs, vanilla and sour cream

- stir in zucchini

- add dry ingredients

- pour into a greased 9x13

- sprinkle chocolate chips over batter

 

Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes

 


Alterations: *See new update below as of 10/1/12*

- I used applesauce to replace the veg. oil
- I used 1/2 & 1/2 to replace the sour cream, but you could use milk
- I fresh ground some flour from my Hard White Wheat Berries so the flour was completely whole wheat.
- I was out of baking cocoa powder so I used 1 1/2 unsweetened baking chocolate squares melted.  I added them when I added the eggs, vanilla, etc.


Next time I think I will try to replace the sour cream with applesauce also for a total of 1 cup applesauce.  Also, on a side note, the original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups sugar and I long ago reduced it to 1/2 cup but you could increase the sugar as desired! 


This recipe always gets rave reviews and even though you can see the grated zucchini in the batter somehow it assimilates well and it is not distinctive in the cake!


Let me know if you try it and what you think! Hope you enjoy it!

Recipe Alteration Update 10/1/12:

SOOO... I made a couple more cakes over the weekend and here is what I found:

The recipe calls for baking cocoa but as I mentioned I had been using unsweetened baking squares because I thought I was out of baking cocoa.  I found my baking cocoa and used it this time and liked the baking cocoa better.  I used my Ghirardelli's Sweet Ground Chocolate and since I had originally cut the sugar this sweetened it a little bit more and I liked it! ALSO...I accidentally used 1 tsp. of baking powder instead of 1/2 tsp. and of course it made it a little lighter and a bit taller so that was fun! This is such a great recipe because you can make adjustments and still come out with a great cake!