PER ITALIANO "Torta Semplice al Cioccolato"
Around two weeks ago while I was walking uphill coming from our building's garage area I came across a teeny weeny baby bird which was obviously fallen from his nest. It was so little and standing on such an unfortunate spot it was almost unavoidable sooner or later to be driven over by a car that comes to or out of the garages, without even being noticed by the driver.
I came near and checked closer, he didn't walk away. He was alive but at the same time didn't seem much lively. As I started looking around and thinking of what I should do I came to notice there were swallow nests attached just under the roof of our building. (I found out later that those nests were there since ever. Apparently when one shows no interest, he doesn't see things no matter how many times he looks.) It was highly probable that our tiny swallow was fallen from one of those nests. Thinking it may be better not to interfere with nature and hoping that he would be found by his mommy, I placed him in the balcony near there which was a much higher place and also located just under the nests and then I left.
After I watered our garden in the evening, we were about to leave for our daily walk and there he was again right at the very same dangerous spot when i found him the same morning. Stefano and I kept looking at him and then each other all puzzled not knowing what to do, we felt so sorry for him. It wasn't about our lack of will to take him home and give shelter. We had mainly three hesitations.
First of all, swallow is not a domestic bird that you can keep home as a pet, moreover it is illegal.
Secondly, we were worried whether he would end up being some home-loving domestic bird, extorted from his natural living space.
And our final worry was we had no knowledge at all about how to grow a swallow. Even though we once had budgies, swallows were a whole new species for us.
We debated over and weighed up our options and finally we agreed upon that he had better chances with us. He wasn't rescued by his mum so far and even worse, he risked to be victim of an unintentional car accident or an easy prey for a cat. We got our ex cage from the garage and went home altogether.
First thing we did was a quick search on internet, thanks to Google. Since it was late, the shops were closed and we didn't have any chance to buy any food whatsoever. Following Ste's research we decided to give him a little minced meat and some water considering he might have been thirsty as it is extremely hot these days.
The morning after Ste went to supermarket and bought some baby food that contained meat and also a pack of syringes. I tried my best to feed him, opening his beak tenderly with the help of a toothpick and injecting food with the syringe, he didn't seem to eat anything by himself. He sure looked better than the day before.
The first three days, we continued to give him baby food as said in many web sites. However we wanted to give him a kind of nutrition which was more suitable for his genre. They are said to eat some worms, larvae so on weekend we started searching a shop that sells such things. It was not an easy task as they are not very common. At last we found some in an aquarium shop. We were very curious to find out if our little friend would enjoy them. I couldn't ever imagine that at some point in my life I would happily bring home some worms, moreover, I would pay for them!! :)
As we were thinking if the tweezers would be the right tool to use in order to get worms and feed them to the little bird, our swallow grabbed the very first worm hanging from the tweezers and swallowed so fast! This is how nature works.. so amazing.. Was it an instinct or the work of a collective memory which was carved in their DNA? I am surely not an expert. Even though he never opened his beak by himself before, he knew what he was supposed to eat and this was all that mattered!
If we are not mistaken our baby bird appears to be a House Martin of swallow family. He keeps us quite busy these days. We've got used to him so much as we don't wish the same for him. We don't want him to get used to us and end up being some domestic dependant bird which can't stay alive on his own. As soon as he learns to fly (and when we believe that he is viable) we will let him go delivering him back to the hands of mother nature wishing the best for him.
I was so talkative today wasn't I? :) Well.. Let me come back to the recipe of our delicious chocolate cake before it is too late :)
The number 41 that you see in the first photo represents the age of Stefano :)
This was the 2nd cake I prepared for his birthday. The other one was New York Cheesecake. I posted its recipe a short while ago as the blog's regular followers will remember easily.
These days cake and dessert recipes come one after another, I hope we don't fall into a diabetic coma :)
Ingredients:
500g fresh cream (cold)
375g cocoa biscuits
75g chocolate chips
Chocolate sprinkles
Chocolate Sauce
Preparation:
- Break biscuits into a deep bowl.
- In a clean and dry TM Bowl insert Butterfly, pour cold cream and whip for 4-5 minutes on Speed 3. (Don't go over Speed 3 as you would risk to end up with butter)
- Transfer whipped cream into the bowl together with the broken biscuits and chocolate chips. Mix all with Spatula.
- Cover a cake tin or a bowl with plastic film. Transfer the mixture into the tin.
- Let it cool in the fridge until it is set.
- When set, transfer it into a plate and remove plastic film.
- Pour and spread several spoons of chocolate sauce over the cake until it is all covered. Decorate with chocolate sprinkles. Let it rest in the fridge around 2-3 hours. (Keep the remaining chocolate sauce aside)
- Cut into slices. Transfer into serving plates. Dress slices with the remaining chocolate sauce and serve.
Enjoy...
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