Heavenly Chocolate Zucchini Cake

This is easily the best chocolate cake I have ever indulged in!  Thanks to Lisa over at The Cutting Edge of Ordinary for sharing this addictive bit of goodness.  I followed the recipe to a T and used applesauce like she recommended.  There was a tiny applesauce incident the second time I made this cake.  Not really sure how it happened, but the applesauce jar fell from the counter and busted all over the floor.  I cleaned up the mess and knelt down to wipe up the sticky applesauce residue - well, all the glass was not cleaned up.  My knee found it and I lost a lot of blood, but survived.  I'm sitting here debating on getting in the shower because we all know how bad that burn is - especially with a cut this bad.  I won't go into too much detail, but there is some "floppage."  With that being said, mmmmmmm - enjoy the best chocolate zucchini cake ever.  This is the kind of recipe that makes you toss out the old standbys because it is so wonderful!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Courtesy of The Cutting Edge of Ordinary courtesy of Bon Appetit, November 1995

2 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup vegetable oil (I used 1/2 cup applesauce instead)
2 large eggs
1 teasoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 ½ medium)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¾ cup chopped walnuts (optional, I left them out)

Preheat oven to 325.

Butter and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan, or a bundt pan. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & salt into a medium bowl. Beat the sugar, butter and oil in a large bowl until well blended. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. Mix in the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk in 3 additions. Mix in grated zucchini. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts. Bake 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake completely in pan.