The Dumpling Short Story & Audiobook Series: Episode 9 - When Cakes Need Caution

When Cakes Need Caution

Bonnie and Sylvie were standing on top of Bonnie’s bed in their nightgowns pretending the bedroom floor was a sea full of dessert. They had made fishing poles out of wooden sticks and yarn, which had cardboard hooks with magnets attached to them. Scattered on the floor were cardboard shapes with magnets in them. The sisters had already caught a gluten-free cake slice and an almond-flour biscuit. 

“I just need to catch that bottle of oat milk swimming by,” said Bonnie, “and then we can have a tea party on my bed!”

But Mum entered the bedroom saying, “Sorry, sweetbeans. Any more fishing will have to wait until tomorrow. It’s bedtime.”

She gently but firmly ushered the sisters under the covers. Then she kissed their foreheads and closed the bedroom door behind her.

“Drat. I was just getting the hang of it,” Bonnie complained in a whisper to her sister. But Sylvie was already softly snoring.

“We never even got to have the tea party,” Bonnie moaned to herself.

“Well, you’re in luck,” said Bonnie’s shaggy sheepdog toy in his gruff little voice.

“Why’s that, Dumpling?” asked Bonnie.

“There’s a party in Fluffland today,” explained Dumpling.

“Am I invited?” Bonnie asked.

“Oh Bonnie,” Dumpling said as he began to glow, “it wouldn’t be a party without you.”

Before Bonnie could blink, she and Dumpling were flying through her bedroom window and into the sunny Fluffland sky.

All of Fluffland seemed to be preparing for the party. Furry storks flew by with shiny silver bunting in their beaks. Down below, white giraffes were placing round silver balloons in all the trees.

“Fluffland is celebrating the sugar pearl harvest today,” said Dumpling.

They passed by a tall tower with an hourglass on top.

“That’s the Icing Sugar Hourglass,” said Dumpling. “When all the sugar reaches the bottom, the cake-eating begins!” 

They made a soft landing on the sponge cake lawn of Whistlecrisp, the Fluffland leader.

“Ah, Bonnie Fields!” the gentle deer-like creature beamed in their flowing robe. “Just in time!”

Whistlecrisp was at a small table where a beautiful cream-coloured cake was twinkling in the sunlight. The cake was decorated with tiny silver balls called sugar pearls. These shiny balls are made of sugar and covered in silver food colouring.

“This is the time of year when the berries of the sugar pearl plant are ripe,” explained Whistlecrisp. “You can tell because they look extra-shiny.” 

The Fluffland leader cut a small slice of the cake.

“Cakes are always delivered here first,” said Whistlecrisp. “Years ago, several cakes were baked to celebrate the annual return of the Cream Parrots. They were supposed to contain white chocolate chips. But instead of Parrot Cakes, the baker mistakenly made Carrot Cakes. They were chock-full of carrots, which parrots do not like!”

“Oh dear!” said Bonnie.

Whistlecrisp nodded as they brought a forkful of cake to their mouth. “So now a cake is first sent to me to make sure it’s up to snuff. But it’s just a formality. The baker wears hearing aids now. So, it’s been years since anything has gone wrong with a -” 

*CRACK!*

Whistlecrisp lifted a hoof to their mouth. “Oh dear.”

“Are you alright?” asked Bonnie, concerned.

“I believe I just chipped a tooth,” said Whistlecrisp.

“Hmm,” said Bonnie as she examined one of the sugar pearls. “Do you think the sugar pearl berries aren’t as ripe as they should be?”

Dumpling shrugged his furry shoulders. “This is always when we harvest them.”

Bonnie asked if she could be taken to the master baker to figure out what was going on.

Whistlecrisp brought out a basket of tools. “Judging by the Icing Sugar Hourglass, we don’t have a lot of time before all of Fluffland begins eating cake. Choose your tool.”

Bonnie selected a small hammer from the basket. Then Dumpling took her hand and the two of them flew away. They were approaching a rather odd-looking building.

“It looks like a giant cake!” marvelled Bonnie. “With dollops of fluffy frosting on top!”

“This is where the master baker does his work,” said Dumpling as they landed by the door.

Inside, Bonnie was amazed by the tangle of conveyor belts winding every-which-way through the building. The belts were rattling very loudly.

Dumpling introduced Bonnie to a small white shrew in a tall chef’s hat.

“This is Simon, the master baker!” Dumpling shouted.

Before Dumpling could introduce Bonnie, Simon bowed and shouted, “The famous Bonnie Fields needs no introduction!” Then he added, “I’m sorry my conveyor belts are so loud! I’ve finally gathered all the materials to fix them! But what can I do for you?”

“Well,” said Bonnie, “we just need to check your supply of sugar pearls.”

“Oh,” said Simon. “But I’ve used them all on the one hundred cakes for today’s party!”

Bonnie noticed a bucket of what appeared to be sugar pearls among the materials to fix the conveyor belts.

“No,” said Simon. “That’s a bucket of steel ball bearings.”

Bonnie wasn’t so sure. She set one of the tiny balls down on the floor and whacked it with her hammer.

*POOF!*

The ball exploded into a little cloud of sugar dust.

“Oh my,” said Simon, wiping his glasses clean. “If those are the sugar pearls, that means we’ve just delivered one hundred cakes filled with ball bearings.”

Bonnie understood they didn’t have a moment to lose. According to the Icing Sugar Hourglass, it was nearly time to eat cake. All the teeth of all the Fluffins were now in danger of getting chipped!

“We don’t have time to warn all the Fluffins!” worried Bonnie as she and Dumpling flew back into the sky.

“And it would take forever to fish around inside every cake to find the ball bearings,” said Dumpling.

Bonnie gasped.

“Fish around! Fishing!” Bonnie was thinking of the fishing game she and her sister played before bedtime, and now she had an idea. “Dumpling, are there any really big magnets in Fluffland?”

Dumpling thought for a moment, then said, “This way!”

Dumpling took Bonnie to the Silverware Scrap Yard. Several Bridgegators were in the process of collecting and moving a heap of teaspoons and cake forks by means of a giant crane magnet.

“Ah Bonnie!” said one of the Bridgegators. “Just doin’ a last bit o’ work before headin’ to the Cake Party! What brings ya here?”

“We need to borrow your magnet!” said Bonnie. “Hmm, but I’m afraid it’s too heavy for Dumpling and me to lift into the air.”

“Not to worry!” said the Bridgegator. He blew a whistle and four enormous Rescue Dragonflies appeared. With each holding a strap in their legs, they had no difficulty carrying the giant magnet.

“Perfect!” said Bonnie. “Follow us!”

Over Fluffland, they flew. When the magnet hovered over a cake –

*PLOOP PLOOP PLOOP!*

- every ball bearing flew up out of the cake in front of the amazed Fluffins and –

*CLANG CLANG CLANG*

- attached to the magnet being carried by the dragonflies.   

In no time at all, every ball bearing had been removed from the one hundred cakes throughout the land. With the last speck of sugar reaching the bottom of the hourglass, the final ball bearing –

*PLOOP!*

- flew out of the slice of cake about to be eaten by a young Fluffin rabbit. 

Bonnie and Dumpling landed long enough for Bonnie to try a slice of the cake, as the Fluffins hurrahed her cleverness. The cake was delicious. But Dumpling began to glow. Bonnie was back in her bedroom. She was asleep, but with the taste of cake in her mouth - a taste much nicer than cardboard.

The End