Chocolate Pistachio Zuccini Cake

I would never have thought to put zucchini in a cake. I like zucchini, baked, fried, chopped, shredded... but in a cake? 

Trust me. You need to try this.

Ingredients:
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C canola oil
1 3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 C flour
4 T cocoa
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves
1 t baking soda

1 t vanilla

1/2 C buttermilk (or 1/2 C milk + 1 t vinegar)
2 C shredded zucchini

TOPPING:
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C pistachios, chopped
1 C chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  Into a large mixing bowl, place 1/2 C softened butter,1/2 C canola oil, 1 3/4 C sugar and 2 eggs. Mix it well with a hand mixer, about 3 minutes should do it. 
• Into a medium sized mixing bowl place 2 1/2 C flour, 4 T cocoa, 1/2 t baking powder, 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/2 t cloves and 1 t baking soda.
• Whisk it around making sure all ingredients are well distributed. 
• Pour 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla into the mixer. 
• Add the dry ingredients and mix until everything is well combined. 
• Peel yourself some zucchini and shred it all up. You need a total of two cups. Add it to the chocolate cake batter and mix until combined. 
• Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and pour the batter in. Spread it around with a knife. 
• Roughly chop up your, 1/2 a cup would be just perfect. 
• Pour the nuts, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 cup milk chocolate chips into the same mixing bowl you used for the dry ingredients. (Why dirty up two bowls, right?) 
• Toss the topping ingredients together and sprinkle them over the top of the cake batter. 
• Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

*Notes - I used a meatloaf pan and not a 13x9 - this made it more difficult to determine how long it needed to bake In total it sat in the oven for about 50 minutes. If you use the 13x9 I'm sure that the alloted time should be acceptable. 

The original recipe called for pecans... but I used pistachios, 1 because I had them and 2, I really like pistachios. They went really well with the cake but didn't stay as fresh as everything else after day 2 or 3.