Zucchini Cake - Two Ways

I love this time of year for so many reasons, but zucchini's being in season is probably one of my favorites. I absolutely love zucchini bread, cakes, cupcakes you name it! So delicious and you even get a little greens mixed in. 

I have two recipes for zucchini cake that I love to make, one is more of a traditional zucchini/spice cake and the other is all chocolate! Who doesn't love a little chocolate? 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/2 cup soft butter or margarine

1/2 cup vegetable oil (you can substitute apple sauce, won't be quite the same but still good)

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 milk

2 - 2 1/2 cups grated zucchini

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

4 Tbsp cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of cloves

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 13 x 9 cake pan or muffin tins. Mix all ingredients together except for the chocolate chips. Pour batter into pan or muffin cups, sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes. Once toothpick inserted comes out clean, remove from oven and let cool.

Zucchini Bread

I make this recipe all of the time and could literally eat a whole loaf just by myself. This recipe was given to me by a good friend of mine and I haven't found a better recipe yet.  I have played around with it by substituting the oil with apple sauce and using whole wheat flour. It is still good, but not as good and it adds a different texture.

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

dash of cloves

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups sugar

3 tsp vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and prepare with grease & flour two 8 x 4 pans. Combine all ingredients except the zucchini, beat well, stir in zucchini. Pour batter evenly into pans. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes, remove from pans and let cool completely. 

I hope you get the opportunity to make one or even both of these recipes sometime this summer, I can't express into words how yummy they are. Enjoy, now I'm off to go steel another piece of zucchini cake!

Toni