Much like every other time up until this point, Althaea Aurelius had been meandering about the Clover Kingdom in hope of discovering some kind of task in which she could assist some individual or another. This was her calling and she had known it to be true. Whether it be something that she could do as a Magic Knight or not, she couldn't be sure. That was her goal though and as such, she was going to give it her all until she was forced to stop. That being the case, Althaea had managed to find herself within a rather interesting location, in which she had never been before, yet again. This time around she would manage to find herself within a town just bordering Silvert Lake. She had managed to spend time in quite a few different regions thus far and this time around, she was within by far one of the most beautiful locations that she had seen overall. The only thing that she could honestly compare this beautiful lake to had been the vast oceans just outside of Raque.

Not quite sure what kind of tasks would be laid about before her within this particular area, Althaea would spend most of her time seeing who had actually needed anything. For the first couple of days, she hadn't really managed to find anyone that wasn't capable of just handling their tasks on their own. It was a tad disappointing to experience such failure within those initial couple of days. Refusing to give up though, Althaea would decide to stick around for another couple of days at the very least. Someone, somewhere, was bound to require assistance with something. This was how she would go on to discover a cute little local bakery. She had passed the place several times over in the past several days but had never decided to stop within it up until today. The thought of how many baked goods she would consume if she were to go in previously had stopped her but now? Now she was just ready to feast on some comfort foods. 

Althaea had been enjoying a small cup of tea and crumpets on this particular day, now that she had managed to give in to her cravings, when she had come to discover that her assistance had been required here. Here of all places! The one place that she hadn't considered up until now... This was truly how things often went and it was just upsetting. If she would have come here days ago, she could have been back home and relaxing within a nice cool tub by now. Still... At least she would be able to help someone now. From what she had overheard by the staff at this local bakery, an upcoming feast at the local lord's estate had been ordered! Such a feast wasn't something that Althaea had the pleasure to experience previously and that had caught her attention. She had been willing to assist the staff regardless but now that there was delectable meals involved? She was fully prepared!

Having spoken with the staff of the bakery, Althaea had managed to be recruited into setting everything up for this upcoming feast. Her previous skill in baking, something that she had learned from her schooling by the Aurelius instructors, had finally been coming in handy as she was being tasked with baking a vast array of pastries for the feast itself. Or well, it was more like she was going to be accruing a vast array of a singular type of pastry. She was going to have to work on her specialty after all. For this particular feast, she was going to be baking various chiffon-style cupcakes that were sinfully delicious. The most important features of the this cupcake are that it is very 'airy' and moist. It contains a large amount of butter, about a third of it in fact, and a large volume of air, producing a cake that virtually dissolves in your mouth. The icing is actually meringue! And of course the traditional filling is made from pineapple, which gives it the faintest of tartness. It all combines into a creamy, fluffy, otherworldly concoction without which no Aurelian birthday, wedding or festivity is complete.

To start off, Althaea would fiddle around throughout the kitchen and begin to grab various pieces of equipment in which she was going to need. She would start by gathering an oven thermometer, a magically imbued stand mixer with a four point five quarts bowl, a scale, and two eight inch round cake pans. To prepare the pans, she would gather two tablespoons of salted butter at room temperature and two tablespoons of all-purpose flour. And as for the ingredients for the cake? She would carefully gather a half pound of all-purpose flour,
one and a half tablespoons of baking powder, a half pound of salted butter at room temperature, a half pound of white granulated sugar, six egg yolks, plus enough egg white to weigh a half pound in total, at room temperature. Of course there is also one teaspoon of freshly grated lime zest, two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and a half of a cup orange juice that had also been at room temperature.

Now that all of the ingredients and each piece of equipment had been brought together, Althaea would measure and weigh all the ingredients. As she had done this, she had been sure to leave the ingredients outside the fridge so they are all at room temperature when it's time to start baking. She would also be sure to prepare the pineapple filling. After a bit of fiddling with the flame imbued oven, having set it to around three hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit, she would begin to mix the flour and baking powder and would sift it together. She would go on to set it aside after diving it into thirds. From there she would grease the baking pans, and lightly dust them with flour before setting them aside as well.

Using the paddle attachment of the air imbued mixer, she would beat together the butter and sugar at a medium speed until the butter had come to be light and fluffy, whilst also having a very light yellow color. The next step would be to add the eggs a third at a time, and continue beating until each third is well incorporated into the mixture before adding the next third. Once the eggs were added, with the air imbued mixer still running at mid-speed, she would add in vanilla and lime zest. Orange juice and flour would follow in a rather similar manner before she had moved onto yet the final step of the baking process, before the decorating. Filling the pans and setting it to bake. 

After what had felt like an exhausting amount of time, Althaea had been sure to remove the cake sized cupcakes from the oven and would prep for the design aspects of baking. Her favorite part if she was being honest. She would begin by cutting the cake crust in a way that would making the cakes even. She would than make an outer circle with the icing, and proceed to fill them with the filling of your choice, which of course had been pineapple, ensuring that she would end this process by spreading it around evenly. To decorate the cupcakes, she would spread the meringue on top and around the cake, add various little decoration tidbits here and there according to her taste. She had honestly thought that each of these little cupcakes had been vastly adorable and that the local lord was going to enjoy them. Over the course of the next several days she would repeat this process over and over again, just up until the night of the feast. And with the feast finally at hand? Oh she was going to be quite the glutton.

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WORD COUNT: 1,322
TOTAL WC: 1,322
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