Guild Wars 2: Omnombery Cake

It is the one year anniversary for Guild Wars 2 this week! I couldn’t resist posting a recipe in celebration. Guild Wars 2 has been my go to game throughout the past year and I don’t see myself slowing down anytime soon. ArenaNet has done a lot to the game to keep me coming back for more. As they continue to work and improve the content for the living story, I keep looking forward to the next update. I’m especially looking forward to the next one because it looks like the return of the Super Adventure Box. With the living story and the fact that I’m working on my first legendary, Bolt (only need the charged lodestones and Zap), I can’t put the game down. Let’s take a brief look back at Guild Wars 2.

When I first played the game I quickly realized this was a very different kind of MMO. It was refreshing to see things like no class requirements to run dungeons and no long quest log. Of course the quest elements existed but were implemented in a new way. One thing I really enjoyed while leveling up my characters was the dynamic event system. I could be goofing around gathering or killing monsters when suddenly an event will kick off. These events could range from escorting a farmer to deliver his good to a lieutenant dragon of an elder dragon causing havoc in a location. Before the latest patch a lot of these events felt a bit empty but with the removal of culling they truly feel like epic battles with several players involved.

I quickly got my main (Slayer Ornstein, an Asura guardian – look at how adorable she is) leveled up to 80 and began exploring the dungeons. I ran a lot of Ascalonian Catacombs to get the gear I wanted for my character (that gear has been completely replaced since then). I enjoyed how much the dungeons require you to be active in the battles and as you do them more and more often you learn how to make these run as quick as possible. A bit after the launch ArenaNet introduced fractals which are one of my favorite things to do. A fractal is a quick set of three randomly selected dungeons that rises in difficulty the more you complete them. Dungeons and fractals are things I wish I did more often because I love doing them! One last thing I’ll mention that I really like about the game is just roaming around zones and looking at the scenery. I’ll do this often as I walk around gathering random materials. The game is truly gorgeous and I think people really need to slow down and just explore. ArenaNet, thank you for making a game that I have truly enjoyed over the past year!

Enough of me rambling about the game, what recipe are we going to be doing today? After a lot of research and determination to figure out the omnomberry I think I’m prepared to teach the world how to create the infamous omnomberry chocolate cake. The first time I made one of these in game I knew I wanted to eat this in real life. Before diving into the recipe I will explain what I found to be the closest thing in our world to the omnomberry. After a lot of research I discovered that there is a fruit called the yumberry. Immediately I looked into it and based on the pictures this fruit is pretty close to the in game version (the biggest difference being it is a little bumper). So began my search for this fruit. Soon I realized it was not easily obtainable. Unfortunately I was unable to get my hands on the actual fruit but I did find a fruit spread that contained yumberry in it. The Asia version of Crofter’s Super Fruit Spread has yumberries and a few other fruits. After a bit of tasting I knew this would work for an omnomberry cake. This is probably one of the most complicated recipes I have posted to date! I recommend giving yourself a lot of time to do this and to plan around it.

Required Equipment: Bowls, Saucepan, Stand Mixer, 3 – 9’ inch Baking Pans
Servings: 8 large slices
Ingredients:
Cake:
– ¾ cup cocoa powder
– ½ cup hot water
– ¾ cup yumberry fruit spread
– 3 cups flour
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 1 ½ tsp salt
– 3 sticks of butter
– 2 cups sugar
– 4 eggs
– 4 tsp vanilla
– 1 cup sour cream

Filling:
– 8 oz cream cheese
– 1 stick butter
– 1 tsp vanilla
– 2 cups powdered sugar
– ¼ cup yumberry fruit spread
– 20 drops neon pink food dye

Frosting:
-10 oz bittersweet chocolate
– 6 oz cream cheese
– 6 tbsp butter
– 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
– 4 tbsp cocoa powder
– ½ tsp salt
– ½ cup sour cream

-Raspberry for decoration

Preheat your oven to 350°F. While the oven is warming up place the yumberry fruit spread in a bowl and bring the water to a boil. When it has come to a boil pour it over the fruit spread and whisk until combined.

Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Set this to the side. In another bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a saucepan melt the butter and combine with the sugar. Mix until smooth and then place into the stand mixer.

Set the stand mixer to stir. This will allow the butter and sugar mixture to cool. Once cooled add the vanilla extract.

Add each of the eggs, one at a time. Once that is combined, add in the chocolate/yumberry mixture to the bowl.

Next add half of the flour in and mix. Add the sour cream.

Finally add the last batch of flour and mix until smooth.

Separate the batter into three separate cake pans. I only had two so I had to do this in two batches. You want to make sure you separate these into three equal portions! Place in the oven and bake for 25-32 minutes or until done. Once done, place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely!

Let’s dive into the filling. Begin by creaming the butter and cream cheese together.

Add the powdered sugar in two batches.

Add the yumberry fruit spread and blend until combined.

Finally we need to get the right color. Add enough (in my case 20) drops of the neon pink food dye until it has reached the desired level of pink! After blend I recommend place this in the refrigerator until you are ready to start assembling the cake.

The last part of the cake until we can begin construction is making the chocolate frosting. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan and set it aside and let it cool.

In a stand mixer (there was a lot of washing this bowl during the process if you couldn’t tell :P), cream the butter and cream cheese.

Add the powdered sugar in batches and mix until smooth.

Take the cooled chocolate and add it to the mixture.

Finally add the sour cream.

Now we can finally begin constructing the cake. Take your cake layers and make sure to cut the extra bump at the top. We want our cake to be level. Add a good chunk of filling.

Place the next layer, add more filling, and place the last layer on top. After adding the filling I placed the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to let the pieces come together. Once rested, cover with the chocolate frosting and decorate with raspberries. I highly recommend letting the cake refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving. This will allow the cake to hold up much better. After that grab a slice and go on a grand adventure!