Chocolate zucchini cake is pretty variable, it appears. A couple weeks ago, we offered a dark, rich zucchini cake recipe that came from two readers. Today’s offering is more like a sweet bread than the earlier version.

Six readers sent along the same recipe for this zucchini loaf, though their sources varied. Jamie Hagedorn found the recipe in The Chicago Tribune. Lois Farr, Dover-Foxcroft, found hers in the Rebekahs’ Cookbook from 2000. Frieda Chase in Bucksport pulled her copy from the 1982 cookbook by the Junior League of Portland. That recipe was also one out of Ruth Thurston’s collection in Machias, and Ruth sent an Orange Zucchini Bundt Cake as well. Shirley Whitcomb sent her recipe along with the advice not to peel the zucchini and Anne Black, Harborside, recommended dicing it.

Lois Farr said she has never made the cake because her husband doesn’t like zucchini. Well, by the time the chocolate takes over, believe me, you’d never know there was zucchini in it. The zuke’s job seems to be to make it really moist, like carrots or applesauce do in their respective cakes, as Nancy Spooner in Amherst pointed out in a clipping that she’d saved since 1979. That article gave recipes for all sorts of vegetable-based cakes, including potato and pumpkin. In fact, Jennifer Armstrong in Belfast just uses her carrot cake recipe, substituting zucchini for carrot.

When I tried the recipe sent by the six of you, we liked it and in fact, I made tea sandwiches out of part of the loaf by spreading sweetened cream cheese between slices of it. However, the favored one was made by blending three unique but similar recipes sent to me by Gail O’Donnell of Belfast, Dawn Curry in Newport and my neighbor Maggy Aston in Islesboro. Maggy’s recipe came from her bakery-owning days 20 years ago in Katonah, N.Y., and called for walnuts. Gail’s recipe, from her friend Happy Bradford, which she said made “the best chocolate bread I’ve ever had,” called for chocolate chips, as did Dawn’s recipe, in addition to cocoa powder.

I used the amount of oil suggested in Maggy’s and Dawn’s cakes, though clearly if you want to cut back on it, you can get away with only three-quarters of a cup. I added a cup of chocolate chips according to Gail’s recipe, and rounded the cocoa to one-third cup as suggested in Maggy’s cake. You can tinker with the sugar, too. I used 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Dawn’s recipe called for cinnamon and cloves and I thought that was a good idea. I’d say you’d have a hard time ruining this cake. Don’t bother with icing unless you are someone who thinks icing is the whole point of cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chocolate chips

Grease and flour a tube or loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift together all the dry ingredients and set aside. Then beat together the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla, then mix in the zucchini. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips. Bake for 50 minutes or until a tester inserted comes out clean.