How to Make a Cybunny Carnival Celebration Cake

Baking in Neopia is possible although it does require that you are a little creative. First of all you need to have some equipment ready and I recommend the following:

Fire Faerie Oven

Several Plain Wooden Bowls

Flaming Oven gloves

Simple Ivory Love Spoon or similar

Jetsam Lunch Lady Spoon

Talianias Whittling Knife

Kitchen Quest Chopping Board (or a Wooden Washboard is a cheap alternative)

Frying Pan

Pie tins – either buy Carnival Pie Baking Sets or re-use the empty tins from something like a Pumpkin Pie.

Next you need to assemble the ingredients. Weighing scales are not freely available in Neopia - I suspect that they are fiercely guarded by the shopkeepers, probably to prevent calibration. Luckily the weights of all items are freely available by simply entering the item name into the Search Box. Be warned though: nothing weighs less than 1 lb so you’ll have to buy some fairly large amounts.

The recipe below is for Extra Carroty Cake and should serve 16-18

Ingredients:

• 1 Bag of Flour – make sure that this is ordinary Wheat Flour, you don’t want to be remembered for transforming your guests into Chias.



• 2/3 Bag of Sugar



• 4 Omega Eggs



• 2/3 Stick of Butter



• 1 - Clove Covered Oranges



• ½ box of Raisins



• 1 – Carrot (it might not seem much but remember this is a 1 lb carrot)



• ¼ - Coconut Dates



• Cinnamon Honey Sticks



For the decoration:

• 1 ½ Bags of Sugar
• ¾ Stick of Butter
• 1 Baby Carrots



• 1 Box of Cinnamon Toasties

Start by preheating the oven to 170 degrees C (325 degrees Fahrenheit). Then place the butter, contents of two Cinnamon Honey Sticks and two cloves from the Clove Covered Orange in the frying pan and melt over a low heat on the stove. Finely chop the Coconut Dates and add to the pan along with the Raisins (remove the cloves first). Whilst they soften, peel the Carrot and then chop it as fine as you possibly can. Next carefully separate the yolks from the whites of the Omega Eggs.

Now we come to the hard part – whisking the egg whites without a whisk! The next best thing would be a fork but the closest widely-available Neopian equivalent is a Pitchfork.

Exactly.

So we need to be a little more creative. If you have plenty of Neopoints I would recommend one of the various Love Spoons, used upside down. The ornate curves are great for incorporating air. If they are out of your price range the only real alternative is a Kyrii Peasant Spoon, the slots will allow a little air in but it will take longer. Either way by the time you’re done there’ll be no need to stop by the Training School this week. But it is a necessary evil as we want the cake to be light and airy and without a raising agent in Neopia (at least not one the Breadmaster will share) it’s the only way. The egg whites are ready when they form stiff peaks. You can check this by holding it upside down over your head, if they stay in place they’re ready. If not, well you’ll need some more eggs. And a bath.

Add the sugar to the bowl containing the yolks and beat well with the Jetsam Lunch Lady Spoon until the mixture is a pale cream colour. Take out the remaining cloves from the orange, remove the peel, finely shred and add to the bowl. Add a little of the melted butter mix and carefully fold in, do the same with the flour and continue alternating until everything is combined.

Add a spoonful of the egg whites to the mixture and beat well. This will slacken the mixture and make it easier to fold the remaining whites in. Do this very carefully so you don’t knock the air out and stop once the mixtures are well combined. If you are lucky enough to have a Cooking Apron you can use the spatula that comes with it for this part.

Use the wrapper from the Stick of Butter to grease the tins. Divide the mixture into four tins and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. To check if they are cooked use the kebab stick from a Bug Skewer (thoroughly washed!) and insert into the middle of a cake, if it comes out clean the cake is ready, if not return to the oven for a further five minutes.

Whilst the cakes are cooking squeeze the juice from the orange into the Frying Pan, along with the contents of the remaining Honey Sticks and warm through. When the cakes are done stab them all over with the skewer and pour the orange/honey liquid over the tops. This will ensure a really moist cake. Leave to cool in the tins.

Whilst waiting for the cakes to cool you can start on the decorations. Wash and dry the baby carrots, coat in the contents of a couple of Cinnamon Honey Sticks and roast in the oven at 200 degrees C (390 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 20 minutes until cooked.

The easiest option for covering the cake is a simple buttercream however it does require some effort to prepare one of the ingredients. As there is no icing sugar you’ll need to make your own. If one of your Neopets is a sturdy species such as an Elephante or a Skeith this should be fairly easy. Add half a Bag of Sugar to that leftover from making the cakes. Add a pinch or so of flour to help the sugar bind and mix well. Seal up the bag, removing as much air as you can and if possible place this inside another empty bag. Then ask your Neopet to jump up and down on it a few times.

This should reduce it to a fine powder. Beat the remaining Butter in a different bowl and then gradually add the sugar. Use this to sandwich the cakes together. Make up another bowlful using 1 Bag of Sugar and 1/2 Stick of Butter and coat the top and sides. An optional extra touch is to roll the sides of the cake in bashed up Cinnamon Toasties for even more cinnamon flavour. Place the roasted carrots on top as per the original Extra Carroty Cake.

Although yours will look far more impressive with the four tiers and will be a suitable centrepiece for your Cybunny Carnival party. So what are you waiting for? Head to the shops now to buy the ingredients and you’ll have a delicious cake ready for the party in no time.

Then all that’s left to do is sit back, put your feet up and wait for the compliments from your grateful friends. Who knows they may even offer to help with the washing up.