Chocolate Mousse Cake

Two very dear college friends of mine have birthdays one week apart. We three like to celebrate somewhere in between their birthdays. One of those friends is stuck in the hospital awaiting the birth of her baby, so this year we brought the party to her. I offered to make dessert and mocktails for the group and I chose a chocolate mousse cake for dessert.

Of course I substituted duck for chicken eggs. Six as opposed to eight because of the difference in size. 

I didn't feel like going out to buy bittersweet chocolate and milk chocolate when I have two varieties of really good chocolate at home - 70% dark chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I did check with chat GPT if it thought I could make those substitutions and still have the cake turn out, and chat GPT thought it would be good. 😅

Got to put my double boiler to use ...

Whisked the egg yolks and the sugar. I'm not sure if I did that long enough because a lot of the sugar fell to the bottom and was not completely mixed in.

Fold the chocolate into the egg yolks, then add the whipped egg whites. Fun fact, duck eggs take longer to whip than chicken eggs. 

Everything gently folded together. According to the recipe you could chill this and eat it plain like regular mousse. 🤔

It was very thick and had to be spread in the springform pan instead of poured. It gets cooked in a bain-marie in the oven (basically the pan in a pan of water). I used parchment paper lining the inside to prevent sticking and aluminum foil wrapped around the outside to prevent water leaking in. 

The only thing big enough to hold the springform pan was my roasting pan. A gigantic bain-marie!

Because I was using duck eggs and my pan was slightly bigger than the recipe called for, my cake would be finished baking earlier than the recipe said. You want the cake to have a slight jiggle in the middle so that it gels in the fridge (like lemon bars). The original recipe says to bake for 50 minutes. This one was supposed to be finished around 40 minutes. I checked at 34 minutes, and it looked quite done! I think I actually over baked it somehow. 

 

It had to cool completely before I took it out of the pan, and I kept it in the fridge overnight. Even though it was overcooked, it's still tasted delicious and I would definitely make this recipe again. I kind of want to make another one this week. 😂

Here is the place setting I brought to the hospital for our birthday celebration:

I pulled out a yellow tablecloth and napkins I embroidered with a rose design back in high school (past 4H project), my rose patterned dessert plates and rose handled silverware, pink elephant wine glasses, and a few crystal and glass serving dishes. Very elegant! It was nice to be fancy for an afternoon! 

And I completely forgot to take a picture of the cake once it was completely finished, so you'll have to look really closely at the above picture to see the cake at the far end of the table. 😅

Weather= Glorious, Mud, Not So Much...

We've almost had an entire week of above 30°. It's been wonderful to taste spring in the air even though we know winter will come back soon. 

The only downside to this heat wave is the mud. 

The entrance to the pasture is particularly bad. We still had some mulch left over from this fall, so I filled in some of the muddy spaces.

So much better! 

My little helper enjoyed the weather too...

The next mud we tackled was next to the steps of our deck. Now our feet won't get so muddy when we turn the corner to head next door. G relocated a big, flat rock to be a stepping stone. 

This is another frequently used pathway to go next door, taking the shortcut underneath the deck.

And finally, the muddy pathway to the compost area is no more!

G took advantage of the nice weather to burn some of the greenery the goats aren't eating. They can only eat so much of the coniferous branches and there's no way they'll get to everything G brought home from the garden center.

 

Picking Up Chicks

We decided our chicken eggs aren't colorful enough, so we ordered more chicks. 😅 25 to be exact, but some are for my dad. These breeds will lay a range of green/teal/olive and deep chocolate browns. 

In preparation for their arrival, G set up this gigantic box from the garden center in my in-laws' garage (with permission). Should be nice and cozy for them! 

Great way to hang a heat lamp -

They arrived Thursday morning! Shipped via USPS. 

They got to foraging right away, some even eating their shredded paper bedding. 

Eventually they huddled up for a group nap. 

Jaron loved them. We helped him pet one and he had a huge grin on his face the whole time. 😊

One last egg related thing... Our eggs are on the shelf at the co-op! Havenacre Homestead label and everything. I wonder how quickly they'll sell...

Mineral Feeder Upgrade

Remember how our mineral feeder was attached to the end of the milking stand? And how it would get full of poop / the chickens would scratch at the mineral so a lot was wasted? 

Well, I finally fixed it. 

It was an easy fix, although I tried a couple different ways before I ended up with something I could live with. 

Method number one was putting a board across the studs. I didn't love how much the feeders stuck out.

Next I tried a piece of wood between the studs. Better. They still stick out, but not as much. 

The best way would be if I could just screw them directly into the plywood wall between the studs.  

The problem with that is the plywood isn't thick enough, so the screws would poke through the other side. We definitely don't want that, so I had to settle for method number two.

Now let's see if I hung them high enough to avoid poop getting inside...

Speaking of high up: 

The Stander

Help Me Grow left us with a new tool to use with Jaron. It's a device that keeps him upright in a standing position to work on his balance and muscles needed for standing. He is such a busy boy that doesn't typically happen, so they thought this would be helpful for him as he learns to stand and walk. 

The first time we used it, he hated it, cried, and tried to escape. 

The second time, I had the idea to put it on a table so he could look out the window at the animals. That worked like a charm! 

He spent a good 15 to 20 minutes looking at all the animals outside. I took him out, and about 5 minutes later he wanted to get back in to look at the animals some more! So we did. 

 

Food Co-op

Our eggs are officially for sale at the St Peter Food Co-op! I did the first drop off of 11 half dozen duck eggs this morning. 

Last night we candled, washed, labeled, and packaged the eggs. When candling the eggs, I'm looking for cracks in the shell, thin areas in the shell, split yolks (from being frozen), and meat spots. Those eggs go in a separate pile for us to keep at home to eat ourselves. 

Our stamps haven't come yet, so G printed our logo and the safe handling instructions to attach to the cartons for now.

The breed of ducks we have lay colored eggs, but sometimes the pigment rubs off which can make the eggs look dirty. I was concerned customers would complain, so I had chat GPT write us up a little note to include inside our cartons.

I think our first delivery looks pretty official!

 

Uneven

The kids very obviously have a favorite side to nurse on. One side was very small and the other looked huge. We don't want her to get mastitis, so G milked her a bit to ease the tension and make the teats more even. Hopefully the kids will nurse from that side now. 

Our first goat milk from our goats:

We let the little family out of the back area yesterday afternoon. They've had their time to bond and the other goats miss Gerda. Senka is definitely the more adventurous of the two. Seems like she likes to explore. 

We took Jip for a walk and found the kids outside when we came back. Somehow I don't think they'd get this close if Jip were home...

Brighita bounced around like a kid herself, clearly loving the new additions to our homestead.