Zucchini Bread variations (chocolate cake)

This is also known as "how to use up extra zucchini without anyone knowing." This is the same zucchini bread recipe, but with some modifications. I added cocoa and chocolate chips and took out the cinnamon.

Zucchini Bread variations (chocolate cake)

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2-4 cups zucchini, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1-1/2 to 2 cups sugar

1/4 cup powdered cocoa

1/2 cup nuts, optional

1 cup mini chocolate chips, optional

In blender beat eggs until frothy. Add vegetable oil, zucchini, and vanilla. Blend until zucchini is pureed (non-recognizable as zucchini). Add nuts and blend only until nuts are chopped (turn blender on and off quickly). In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Mix in sugar. Pour zucchini mixture into dry ingredients and mix well. 

Bake the cake at 350° in a Bundt pan for 45-60 minutes, in a jelly roll pan for 20 minutes, or a 9x13-inch pan for 30 minutes, or until done. Dust with powdered sugar or frost with chocolate icing. No one will know there is zucchini (or whole wheat flour, if using) in the cake unless you tell them.

I put sliced almonds on the bottom of the Bundt pan and added 1/2 tsp. of almond extract for the cake pictured above.

For brownies, I baked the mix in a jelly roll pan and then frosted it with the Texas Sheet cake frosting. You don’t have to peel the zucchini if you don’t mind flecks of green skin, and I almost always use 4 cups of zucchini per batch of bread. You can substitute up to 1 cup of wheat flour for the white flour without many people noticing the difference even in the brownies.