Chocolate zucchini cake

I suppose I'm not the first person to be fooled by a squash plant. I was keeping up on harvesting the small guys, but surprise! A monster was hiding under a leaf all along. I love the camouflage stripes on this variety.


A friend gave me this recipe over 30 years ago, and I make it every year when I'm bestowed with a Great Zucchini.

1/2 cup margarine or butter, soft
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups finely diced (not shredded) peeled, firm zucchini
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Grease and flour a Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350.
Beat together the sugar, eggs, butter, oil and vanilla until fluffy.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and then add to the butter/sugar mixture alternating with the buttermilk. Finally, stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips. This is a dense cake, and takes at least a hour to bake.