Chocolate Zucchini Cake

from Simply Recipes

I was looking for recipes for zucchini bread and stumbled upon this. Since it involves chocolate, it sounded infinitely better than zucchini bread. As it turns out, I had enough zucchini for both this cake and muffins. The muffins were ok, but this cake--I still have half of it on my counter, but probably not for long. If you're in the area, come by for a slice!

2 1/2 cups regular all-purpose flour, unsifted (I used unbleached)
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup soft butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp grated orange peel
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional--I didn't put them in, but they'd be good)

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside.

With a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until they are smoothly blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With a spoon, stir in the vanilla, orange peel, and zucchini.

Alternately stir in the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture, including the nuts with the last addition (if used).

Pour the batter into a greasead and flour-dusted 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth.

Drizzle glaze over completely cooled cake. I do this when the cake is still on the wire rack, with a plate underneath to catch the drips.

Enjoy!

Everyone who has tried this has asked if it is healthy. I don't know that's the term I'd use--it's not low fat or low calorie--but I suppose it has more nutrients than a regular chocolate cake. If it helps you to call it healthy, then I go ahead and do so. :)