Recipe Wednesday: Chocolate Zucchini Cake

From the literature, we find a highly-cited publication for chocolate zucchini cake: 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake II, 

by Sandi 

 

"A great cake for all that zucchini at the end of the season, and the kids love it too!" 

Ingredients  

Original recipe makes 1 9x13-inch cake 

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups zucchini, finely diced

Procedure: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Cream butter, oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and sour milk. Beat until smooth.
3. Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and cinnamon together and add to creamed mixture. Beat well. Stir in diced zucchini.
4. Pour into a 9x13 inch pan and sprinkle top with chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Commentary

This sounds like a nice recipe, but it is yet another example of the Great Zucchini Glut. Would there possibly be any reason for zucchini to be a perfectly good chocolate cake recipe other than the massive oversupply of zucchini to the kitchen? We need zucchini supply reform if we are to stop the spread of unnecessary zucchini consumption. 

(Incidentally, how accurate are toothpicks for in-process checks? Was it a cGMP toothpick? What was the sampling procedure? I'd hate to see what an FDA inspector would have to say about this recipe.)