Pound Cake with Goat Butter and Duck Eggs

Now that the baby ducks I got back in March have begun producing eggs, there are finally enough to sell at market, have for breakfast, and try out recipes that need lots of eggs. The lady who sold me the adult layer ducks said that when she had too many eggs she made pound cake.  The other major ingredient for pound cake is of course the pound of butter. Luckily last winter when the goats were producing milk with lots of butterfat, we made lots of butter and stacked it away a pound at a time in the freezer. Now as Fall approaches and their butterfat levels rise again, it's good to find a recipe that will make good use of the last of my winter butter stockpile, so there is room for new. This recipe makes quite a few mini pound cakes. I guess I could freeze them - ha ha ha!

1 pound fresh goat butter, softened, but not melted
3 1/3 cups sugar
10 fresh duck eggs
4 cups brown rice flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare two 9x5 inch loaf pans, or three 9-well mini-loaf pans with cooking spray and a good dusting of rice flour. Cream the butter and sugar and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the duck eggs for four minutes until light in color. Add the beaten eggs to the butter and sugar and continue beating until smooth.  Add flour one cup at a time, xanthan gum, salt, vanilla and nutmeg, also beating until smooth. Spoon into the pans and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool in the pans for 5 minutes before turning out on to a rack. Makes 24-27 mini-loaves.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Late in the Fall, the goats give less milk volume, but the milk they do give contains higher butterfat. Our little Nigerian Dwarf goat, Coco Puff gave the highest butterfat percentage, a whopping 9%, though Ol' Mimzy put in a personal best at 8%.

It took us four days to save up the milk from all the goats to make enough cream for the pound of butter for this recipe! It was a lot of work, but the cookies are so good, it was worth the wait. They are thin and crispy, and pretty when held up to the light!


1 pound fresh goat butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together butter and sugar. Sift dry ingredients together and mix into creamed mixture. Roll into small balls and place on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned.

It's Butter, Baby!

Once we saw our new cream separator would work, we decided to try making butter. We put 4 gallons of milk, which is a whole day's work for our goats, and got about a half gallon of cream. The cream turns into butter by whipping the cream so the membranes covering the butterfat break down, the fat sticks together, forming butter.

We first tried using a hand mixer, which worked but was very messy! We then used a food processor, which also worked, though after a while the motor got hot and melted the butter! We had to add ice to the final batch.

Once the butter came out of the food processor, we soaked it in ice water to remove the last bit of buttermilk. We then scooped them up with an ice cream scoop and put them in the fridge. We weighed the butter with the barn scale. The half gallon had made a pound of butter!

After testing the butter on a piece of hot toast, we decided to make Scotch Shortbread cookies.
Here is the recipe:

1 cup fresh goat butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and salt. Slowly add flour, one cup at a time, mixing to form a smooth stiff dough. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a foil-lined cookie sheet, or into shaped mini-muffin pans prepared with cooking spray. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool before removing from pan. Makes about 20 cookies.