7 Egg Cake Review and OH MY shocking egg!

My review on the Elvis Cake:

FIrst let me start by saying it was pretty labor intensive, however, I had no issues during the process.  I have been having issues cracking the eggs.....store eggs break so easily, they just usually crack in half when you tap them on the counter.  Motherclucker eggs take more effort to crack and then the shell continues to shatter into tiny pieces and usually end up with one or 2 in the batter.  I usually try to crack the eggs into a dish now, one at a time, so I am able to better fish out these pieces.  The egg is so snotty in consistancy, it's near impossible to get the shell piece out because the egg stretched back into the dish pulling the shell piece with it.  It's pretty funny when it happens, but when I was doing it in brownie mix, I eventually gave up and baked it. Ironically, no one crunched on it when it was served, so I was relieved!  If you recall from my previous post, this receipe requires 7 eggs.  That interests me because I usually get 5 a day if everyone lays, so we have plenty to use.  Making this cake, I also followed my gut and cracked each egg into a little bowl one at a time.  Glad I decided to do this as about egg #3, hailing from Grun, our Welsummer with the pretty dark eggs....looked like this:

Now when i posted a picture of this egg on my Facebook page, my friends were commenting that the egg looked fertilized. (ALL my eggs are fertilized!)  What they mean't was...it appeared to have started developing.  That cannot be.  I collect eggs daily and put them in the fridge.  It would take afew days of incubating and most hens don't start incubating until they lay a clutch so I cannot believe that this was the case.  More than likely, something was going on inside this hen and just so happen to get involved in the contruction of this egg.  There is some weird looking matter in their...maybe some skin and a broken blood vessel.  No worries as it is normal to received deformed, unformed and any other weird looking eggs from young hens.  It was a fluke and we have not found another since.  You never know what you'll find.  For the record, this yolk broke when it landed in the dish, so it looks a little more mangled that it should.  :)

Back to the cake!  Elvis' cake baked up perfect!  It was a very nice consistancy and had a good taste.  We all determined it would be great with fruit or a fruit topping.  Unfortunately, I had not prepared ahead for that and we settled for some chocolate syrup drizzled over it.  This cake will be great during the summer when fresh fruit is plentiful!  Will definitely make the cake again. 

 It's going to be another cold one tonight and we keep getting small accumulations of snow that mostly melt away quick during the day.  Last night's snow is still covering most  of our acre, but 5 miles down the hill at my mother and father's house, it was all gone!  Enjoy it while you can....hopefully winter will be out of here shortly!  This gang prefers not to be in the snow, but they love being outside.  Genny and I got home around 5:00 tonight, but let the gang out and they enjoyed about an hour foraging in what little grass is exposed!

-Malissa

Snow!

We just received some fresh now.  It could have been alot worse.  I'm thinking 4-5 inches, but even that is hard to tell now with so much drifting going on.  The wind is wiping some areas of the yard clean of snow and piling it up at other areas.  Genevieve and I are home alone this weekend since the boys have gone camping with Trent's Cub Scout troup at Hawk Mountain.  We hope they are having a good time as we tend to the house.  Here's some photos of the snow around here!

Thunder didn't stay outside long....he enjoys a good romp, but quickly hightailed it back in the house!


If I'm not tired enough from hand shoveling our 60' plus driveway....(the snow blower is buried in the shed and I've never been 'trained' on it.), my next project today is to try a new cake recipe. My boss has fueled my love of cooking (she also is a great cook) by giving me lots of her favorite cookbooks.  We always discuss what recipes we've tried and like.  She gave me 2 of the Gourmet Today books (Ruth Reichl, author).  One has a yellow cover and one a green.  This recipe comes from the green covered edition, which ironically I recently saw a ton of them for sale dirt cheap at OLLIES in Muhlenberg.  I use the yellow book more than the green, but there is some awesome things in the green as well.  It's worth picking up if you find it cheap. :)  What I will attempt to make today is found on page 717 and is across the page from a Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake that I've made quite afew times and love.  This one, is called ELVIS PRESLEY'S FAVORITE POUND CAKE.  Kenny's first comment was.....why do you want to make his cake?  He died all fat!!!  Leave that one to sarcastic husbands! HA!  One thing I like about the recipe??  It uses 7 EGGS!!!!  When you get 5 a day, that is great for using a bunch up in one shot!  It looks slightly labor intensive and involves 3 sifts of the flour and a tube pan.  http://www.divine-baking.com/2011/07/elvis-presleys-favorite-pound-cake.html  Here is a link to the recipe I found on the internet for your perusal.  My bundt pan is 2 piece.....recipe specifically says do not use a 2 pc pan.  SO....over to the neighbor's with a dozen eggs to share to beg for the use of a bundt pan!  SUCCESS! 

I'll work on the cake a little later and let you all know how it turns out!  I have high hopes for the King of Rock and Roll's favorite cake!  Might have to slather it with P.B and Bananas!

I should probably play his music while I'm working on it....for good luck!  :)

Sweatin' to the oldies.
Malissa

Free Rangin'!

We had a busy day today.  I worked all day, then picked the kids up from school and went straight to their swimming lessons.  I called home later in the evening to check in with the hubs.  Immediately, he tells me the chickens were out.  I was like, huh?  He pulled in and the girls were in the yard and Lila was on the deck.  I said, wow...I haven't been there since 8:15am ...and they were in the coop!  The only thing I can figure is the door to the run was not latched and one of those smart feathered birdies leaned against it hard enough for it to open.  Kenny has a spring loaded closer on it, so it would have shut itself after they sprung from jail!  There were 3 eggs in the box....good chance any later day layers laid in the yard somewhere!  Will have to go on an egghunt tomorrow to see if we can find any others!  Glad to see that stinkin' rooster earned his keep by watching over the girls!  I'm happy they were found in our yard as well!  That's not to say they didn't visit the slop pile in the back of the neighbor's yard....they've never wandered further than that.  I'm also happy to say that they visit our own compost bin first when they get let out now.  I've been putting alot in it, so they had lots to munch on!   I was feeling guilty that it was a nicer day and they had to stay in the coop!!  hahaha  Guess they took matters into their own hands!  Bird brains, they are not!

Flower lays first egg???

Yesterday, we got 5 eggs!  1 from each of the hens!  2 green, 1 dark brown and 2 light brown!  I think that means Flower finally laid!  Of course, was hoping to confirm that today, but there was only one green egg in the nest box (most likely Prissy...she's an early bird)....if Flower laid later in the day, good chance they were already locked out of the coop...so definitely want to look around tomorrow to see if we can find any eggs!  These girls always keep you guessing!!!! 

We are seriously thinking of doing some kind of fence in the back yard.  We have an acre, so I'm sure it would cost a fortune to fence the whole thing.  I guess we'll have to start pricing.  The neighbor's keep talking about getting chickens and I definitely don't want my flock intermingling....bad jou jou and diseases.  Hope they keep it on the D.L. as I don't want to get busted for having chickens because they go out and get a bunch.  I do not know the neighbor on the other side of them....they only moved in towards the end of summer. Not sure if they are tolerant to our under the radar chicken keeping!  No one's complained about Lila as of yet, so that is a good thing.  I figure he's no worse than a barking dog...and we have plenty of them around here...so how bad can he be!?

Here's to hopin' these girls don't escape again tomorrow!!!!  Weasels!

Eggs for sale?

I think we can safely sell a doz eggs every week or 2.  I have an ad up in Craigslist to see if I can find someone who is looking to purchase on a regular basis.  So far, no hits.  It would definitely help finance the feed.  If you know of anyone local to us who wants to know where their eggs come from , how the birds are treated (SPOILED!) and care that they have an organic, soy free diet....please send them my way!.

Now I know where 'flew the coop' came from! 
Malissa