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Mosscap asking to stay behind with the wagon instead of talking to people was unexpected. It had spent the morning in the usual routine of Sibling Dex introducing Mosscap to the residents of Willowdale and then Dex had visited some of the traders to restock their kitchen. When Dex headed back to the wagon late in the afternoon to drop off their supplies before heading to the steam baths, they were surprised to find Mosscap joining them.
“You’re already done talking to everyone? It looked like you still had people wanting to answer your question,” Dex said.
“I wanted to take a break. I’m feeling a little tired today,” Mosscap replied.
Dex looked at the robot's back in concern. “Do your solar panels need cleaning? We should have had plenty of sun to recharge you on the way here."
“No, no,” Mosscap reassured them. “The solar panels are fine. It is not a physical tiredness. I would like a little quiet time to think about what people have told me today is all. I thought I could mind the wagon while you're at the steam baths.”
“Mind the wagon?” Dex frowned. They weren’t sure why the bear-proof wagon would need minding in a small, friendly village. It had never needed it before.
“Yes. This is a thing that people do, is it not? I will stay and mind the wagon and you can relax and enjoy your bath without worrying about greenwings stealing your mallowberries.” Mosscap gestured to the basket of bright purple berries on Dex's arm. “I hear they can be quite persistent in their foraging.”
Dex shrugged, deciding not to point out that it was peak mallowberry season and the birds in the surrounding bushes were in no danger of needing to forage inside their wagon any time soon. If Mosscap wanted some quiet time then that was fine by them. “Ok, if that’s what you want to do. We've been invited to join game night later by some of the villagers. I’ll come back after the baths and see if you want to join us then.”
“I would like that very much. Will there be card games? I’ve been reading up on three twist and I understand the strategy now.” Mosscap had lost spectacularly when the villagers at their last stop had taught it to play the card game, much to the amusement of the other players. It had been unconcerned by losing, taking great delight in doing such a human thing.
“If you want to play three twist I’m sure we can do that. I’ll see you later.”
---
Once Dex had left, Mosscap surveyed the wagon’s fold-out kitchen gleefully. Its ruse about being tired had worked. Ha! What a wonderfully human thing to do! It had overheard one of the villagers talking about baking a cake for his son's birthday. Mosscap had asked about birthdays and cakes and had been pleased to learn that the two could be combined. It had been even more pleased to learn that Sibling Dex's birthday was tomorrow. This called for birthday cake. Mosscap had never baked a cake before but it had helped Dex to cook and the villager had told it what a cake was made from. It could make a cake. It would be a nice surprise for Dex when they returned.
Mosscap opened the door to the wagon and stuck its torso inside. It pulled up the list it had made earlier and began to rummage through the pantry. Eggs, sugar, butter, flour. Bowls. A spoon for mixing. Something to bake the cake in. Mosscap laid out all the ingredients and equipment with great satisfaction. It was baking a cake!
Mosscap had encountered eggs from a great many species before now but had never thought to try cracking one open before meeting Sibling Dex. It had watched Dex crack the eggs against the side of a bowl when cooking so it tried to copy the movement, smacking it on the rim of the bowl. The eggshell collapsed in a big, gloopy mess. Half the insides ran down the outside of the bowl and the other half contained several pieces of the broken shell.
Mosscap thought for a moment. Dex had always removed the tiny pieces of eggshell if any were left behind. It carefully lowered its hand into the bowl, scooping up a piece of eggshell, which promptly slipped straight back into the bowl. It tried again. And again. And again. After ten minutes, Mosscap gave up. Robots were patient but it knew Dex would be back soon and it still had a lot of work to do. It decided to try a new egg.
Five eggs later, Mosscap finally found the right amount of force to crack the egg and had a bowl containing egg white, yolk and no shell. Next it picked up the bag of flour and tipped it into the bowl, followed by the bag of sugar. When Dex was cooking they had told it that they just went with what felt right when choosing how much of something to use so Mosscap did the same even though it hadn’t been sure how to tell what felt “right”.
Butter it was more confident about. Dex had previously shown it to use a thumb-sized piece and that’s what Mosscap had always seen it use since then. It added the chunk of butter to the bowl. Mosscap looked thoughtfully at the mixture. Something was missing. Jam! Leon, who was baking for his son, had said cakes had jam in them.
Mosscap went back to the wagon and picked out a jar of mallowberry jam. That would do nicely. Another, smaller jar of spice on the shelf above caught its eye. Dex liked spices. It scooped the contents of both jars into the bowl and mixed them in. The result didn’t look very appealing. Mosscap wasn’t sure if it was supposed to look like that but Leon had said that the magic of baking a cake was taking a load of ingredients and watching them turn into something new and delicious.
Now for Mosscap’s favourite part of cooking. It made a happy noise as it switched on the fire drum and the flame flared into being. It watched the flames for a few minutes in awe. The ingenuity of the device never got old.
Mosscap picked up the bowl, then stopped. Leon had said he would use a cake pan to bake his cake. What was a cake pan? The bowl wasn’t a pan so it couldn’t use that. Dex only had a few pans to pick from. Mosscap selected the largest. It was round so would be a good shape for a cake. It carefully tipped the lumpy mixture into the pan and set it on the stove. It wasn’t sure how long the contents of the pan would take to become a cake but it was fascinated by the process of food being cooked. It settled in to watch every detail of the cake transforming as it baked.
---
Dex felt relaxed and happy as they walked back from the steam baths. It always felt like a proper luxury after days of using the camp shower. Unfortunately for Dex, it was a feeling that wasn't going to last long. The smell of something burning rapidly got stronger as Dex approached their wagon.
"Mosscap, what... what happened?" Dex stared in dismay at the carnage in front of them.
“Sibling Dex! You scared them!” Mosscap stood up from where it had been crouched on the ground several feet from the wagon and looked reproachfully at Dex. Then it noticed the smoke rising from the stove as Dex hurriedly switched the fire drum off. “Oh. Oh dear. I’m sorry, Sibling Dex, there was a sunfox with her kits. I must have got distracted by them. Is the cake alright?”
“The cake? That’s what this is supposed to be?” They prodded doubtfully at the congealed, burnt mess with a wooden spoon.
"I'm baking!" Mosscap said proudly, then looked at the pan. "I was trying to bake anyway. I'm not sure it's meant to look like this."
“It’s not,” Dex agreed. “Did you put jam in this?”
“Yes. Leon said jam goes in the middle of the cake so that’s what I did. Did I do it wrong?” Mosscap asked anxiously.
“The jam's meant to go in after the cake’s been baked. I suppose you could mix some into the batter first but not like whatever this is. That's what's burning.”
“Oh dear.” Mosscap looked sadly at the pan. “Cake-making is harder than I expected. You make cooking look easy.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice. And cooking doesn’t need to be as precise with quantities and ingredients as baking cakes does. Did you use a recipe?”
“A recipe?” Mosscap looked confused for a moment. “Oh. Instructions. No, Sibling Dex I did not use a recipe.”
“It might have helped. Or it might not. Most people are taught to bake, we don’t usually just…” Dex waved a hand at the mess.
“...mix things together without instructions and then burn it because you got distracted by sunfoxes?” Mosscap finished.
“Not usually, no.” Dex laughed. “And we usually put cakes in an oven, not on top of the stove. I would’ve been happy to help teach you, you know.”
"I do know that but it was supposed to be a surprise."
"What kind of surprise?"
"If I tell you, it will ruin the surprise."
"I think it's a bit late for that unless you were trying to ruin my pan to surprise me."
"The villagers were telling me about birthdays and cakes. I saw on your calendar that tomorrow is your birthday, Sibling Dex. I wanted to make you a birthday cake."
"Oh." Dex's shoulders sagged, the last of their dismay at the state of their kitchen draining out of them. With such a large family, birthdays were a frequent and chaotic celebration on the farm. Since Dex had left, they preferred a quieter day, taking time to indulge in small comforts without making a fuss. They hadn't thought much about the day and hadn’t been expecting Mosscap to mark the occasion.
“Was that a bad idea?”
"Not a bad idea. It was a kind one. Just... ambitious perhaps. You must be the first conscious robot to ever try baking a cake."
Mosscap considered for a moment. “Huh. Yes, I suppose I am. Then you’ll forgive my lack of skill at making an edible cake?”
Dex grinned. “I’ll forgive you if you make use of not having muscles to get tired and scrub that pan clean. I’ll take care of the rest of the mess. Then, if you still want to bake a cake, we can ask Callie the baker if she’ll help you tomorrow. She’ll be at game night.”
“Deal.”
---
As Mosscap got to work on the pan Dex started gathering up the remains of their baking supplies. They stopped and stared at the jar in their hand. “Mosscap? Did you put arrowspice in this cake?”
“Of course, Sibling Dex! I’ve seen you use it many times when you cook. Was it a good thing to add to the cake?”
“No, we don’t put spices in cake. Well, no, we do, some spices anyway. But not arrowspice. It doesn’t taste good like that.”
“Why not?”
“It… it just doesn’t.” Dex shrugged. “Some flavours work together and some don’t. Some work in cake and some don't. I can’t really explain it.”
Mosscap made an exasperated noise that would probably have been a sigh if it had possessed lungs. “I do not understand human food preferences. You all make things very complicated.”
“You only think that because you don’t have tastebuds.” Dex grinned. “It makes more sense to us. We still disagree about flavours a lot of the time though. You should hear the arguments my family has about the best way to season grass hen stew.”
“So what would be a good flavour for a cake?” Mosscap asked. “Which flavour would you like?”
“Anything with citrus is good. Or if you want to stick with the mallowberry jam it’s really nice with chocolate sponge.”
“Chocolate sponge?” Mosscap looked baffled. “You make cake with sea creatures?”
“No, it’s just what we call it. It’s cake that’s light and has air holes in, like a sponge. You can have fishcakes, but they’re not actually cake. More a patty.”
Mosscap stopped scrubbing the pan and stared at Dex, its head whirring. “How am I supposed to understand how to make a cake you’ll want to eat when none of your words make sense?”
“That,” said Dex. “Is why you get an expert to teach you. Anyway, you only have to do better than this attempt and make it edible and it’ll be the best cake a robot has ever made.”
Mosscap nodded. It may or may not be a good cake but that it could do. Dex was going to get the best birthday cake a robot had ever made.