Betty Badger's Sleepy Forest Bake-off 🥐🦡 Kids Bedtime Stories

[00:00:10] Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. Oh goodness, tonight's story is all about cakes. I hope my tummy doesn't rumble as I read. As you know, Betty Badgers Baking is legendary in Sleepy Forest, and in tonight's story she decides to host her own baking competition

[00:00:38] in the hopes of finding the best, as of yet undiscovered, baker in the forest. Before we begin, a quick message for the grown-ups. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad-free listening, unlock four bonus stories per month and much, much more, you can join Coco Club. Subscribe in just two taps via the link in the show notes. But now here's a quick word from our sponsors.

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[00:03:09] To why are hummingbirds so unique, you'll discover fun facts, play along with interactive quizzes and maybe even learn something new. Each episode is only 15 minutes, perfect for car rides, snack breaks or winding down after school. And if you're looking for a fun bedtime listen, check out the special episodes we created with the trusty narrator called The Story of Bedtime Stories. You'll find it over on their feed.

[00:03:37] Who Smarted is available on all major podcast platforms. Search for Who Smarted on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get podcasts. Hey, sleepyheads. I'm Kelly, the host of Koala Shine, the perfect daytime adventure show for long car journeys, school runs and lazy Sunday mornings. I'm popping up here on Koala Moon because I've heard you want more Koala Kids stories. And I'm here to deliver. Beep beep, special delivery.

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[00:04:58] Now then, who do you think might have the secret skills up their sleeves to win the contest and join Betty Badger in her bakery? Could it be Prickles? Camo? Apollo the alligator? Coco? Kira? Cuddle? Munchie? Okay, I'll stop now. Could go on and on and on forever. Let's start the story and we'll find out together.

[00:05:26] This is Betty Badger's Sleepy Forest Bake Off by Alicia Ainsley. Betty Badger's bakery was the most popular eating establishment in Sleepy Forest. The humble bakery was a firm favorite amongst the citizens of the forest.

[00:05:49] And every day, there was a long queue waiting outside, longing to indulge in the sweet and savory treats that Betty had whipped up in her kitchen that morning. Business was booming. Business was booming. And as a result, Betty was struggling to keep up with the number of baked goods needed to produce each day. Betty had a strict rule in her bakery that everything was baked fresh that day.

[00:06:18] That was why everything tasted so good. She and her three little badgers, Chip, Ginger and Lavender, woke up early every morning to whisk, knead and bake dozens upon dozens of delicious treats to sell on the shop floor when it opened to customers. Betty absolutely loved her job. It had always been her dream to open her own bakery.

[00:06:47] And seeing how many Sleepy Forest residents loved her creations filled her heart with joy. That was why it disappointed her so much when she ran out of things to sell and had to turn customers away who had queued up too late in the day. If only she had another pair of hands to help her in the kitchen. Maybe then she would be better able to stay on top of orders.

[00:07:15] At the end of one particularly busy day in the bakery, Betty, Chip, Ginger and Lavender were all tidying up the shop floor when Betty confessed her feelings. She sighed. I think we may need another pair of helping hands around here. The bakery has become so popular we can hardly keep up.

[00:07:43] What do you think about hiring a new baker to join our team? Betty's three children agreed that it was a good idea. If somebody else joined the team, then they could keep the kitchen ticking over while the children and Betty worked the shop floor. Betty smiled, feeling encouraged, amused. Good.

[00:08:10] Now, the only problem is, how do we find someone who is a good enough baker? We could put up a poster in the shop window. So, Lavender offered as she wiped icing sugar from the cake cabinet, leaving it sparkling clean. Chip proposed. Or you could ask a friend to help. Betty was grateful for Lavender and Chip's ideas.

[00:08:40] But she knew that they wouldn't necessarily find the best baker to join their team that way. Then Ginger had an out-of-the-box idea that piqued Betty's interest. What if you held a competition to find the best baker in the forest? Ginger suggested. The winner's prize could be, um, to work in our bakery.

[00:09:11] Oh, I like that idea, Lavender grinned enthusiastically. We can be the taste testers, added Chip with glistening eyes. Betty chuckled at her children's enthusiasm. It did sound like a good idea, and it would be lots of fun, too. Betty mulled the idea over, and after a few days, she decided she would do it.

[00:09:40] Betty Badger would host a bake-off competition in Sleepy Forest to find the perfect sous-chef. Chip, Ginger and Lavender designed colourful posters to advertise the event, and Betty set the date. In two Sundays' time, the Sleepy Forest bake-off would commence. Anybody was welcome to enter by baking something and bringing it to the event.

[00:10:10] Tables would be set up right outside Betty Badger's bakery for competitors to showcase their submissions on, and a judging team would taste test each entry to pick a winner. The lucky victor would earn a prize job in Betty Badger's renowned bakery kitchen. Betty was a little nervous about hosting the competition. What if nobody wanted to enter?

[00:10:38] Or what if there was nobody quite good enough among the contestants? It was all a bit of a risk. But fortunately, it turned out Betty had nothing to worry about. When the big day of the bake-off came around, the forest area around Betty Badger's bakery was chock-a-block with eager contestants and excited observers.

[00:11:05] Betty's Sleepy Forest bake-off had attracted interest from far and wide. Creatures big and small, enchanted and ordinary, had been busy in their kitchens at home, creating edible delights they believed would help them win the contest. The tables were packed to the brim. There was barely a spare spot left as each dish was crammed on top.

[00:11:35] There were cakes and cookies, pies and pastries, breads and biscuits galore. The aroma in the air was wonderful as the sweet scents flooded the forest. The smells were so enticing that every onlooker's belly grumbled with longing.

[00:11:59] Luckily, the three little badgers had anticipated that an audience might need a snack and had prepared a fresh batch of mini doughnuts that morning in the kitchen to hand out to attendees. Whilst they did so, Betty overlooked the array of bake-off submissions. Everything looked wonderful.

[00:12:23] In front of every submission was a little paper tag stating the name of the contestant who had made it and the title they'd come up with for their dish. Betty and her children would taste the food first before looking at who had made it to ensure their scores would be fair and unbiased.

[00:12:45] When it was finally time for the taste testing part of the bake-off to begin, Chip, Ginger and Lavender returned to their mother's side and grabbed their aprons, tasting spoons, clipboards and pens. The three little taste testers looked very official. Betty turned to the crowds of eager onlookers and excited contestants. She addressed them all.

[00:13:16] Thank you for coming today and welcome to the Sleepy Forest Bake-Off. The audience clapped and the three little badgers grinned and hopped up and down excitedly. As you know, Betty continued, today's competition is being held with a very important goal in mind. We are searching for the best baker in Sleepy Forest.

[00:13:47] Whoever wins today with the most delicious dish will earn a prized position in my bakery kitchen. The spectators instinctively oohed with intrigue and the competitors ahled with excitement. Betty placed her tall white chef's hat on her head and declared, Let the bake-off contest begin!

[00:14:16] The crowds cheered and Betty and her little badgers turned to the tables of entries with their clipboards. It was time to do some taste testing. Where shall we begin? Chip asked, staring at the tables. It all looks so good! Obviously it would make sense to start with the dish labelled number one, Lavender replied matter-of-factly.

[00:14:47] Ginger raised his tasting spoon in the air and pointed to a plate of spiral-shaped, multicoloured mini cakes with sparkly sprinkles on the top. There's number one, he declared. Betty and her children passed around the creatively designed cakes and each took a bite. It was sugary sweet and evaporated like sherbet dust in their mouths.

[00:15:18] Mmm, interesting, Betty commented, smacking her tongue against her lips and writing a score on her clipboard. What are they called? Ginger inspected the tag and read that the cakes were called Twirly Wurly Buns. They had been baked by none other than Coco the Koala. Betty smiled appreciatively and said,

[00:15:46] We are off to a good start. The next entry was a plate of what looked like pancakes, suitably named Sweet and Sticky Stacks. Five fluffy pancakes were stacked on top of each other in a perfect tower. And two different coloured sauces in gold and pink had been drizzled over the top.

[00:16:13] The sauces cascaded down the sides of the pancakes onto the plate. A selection of berries and honeycomb decorated the top layer like a little crown on top of the dish. It all looked very impressive. Although Betty wondered how something like this might be sold in her bakery without making quite a mess in the process.

[00:16:38] The family of taste testers all dug their spoons into the sweet and sticky stack and carved out a five-layered bite. Ginger chewed and exclaimed, Mmm, my bite tastes like mixed fruit. Chip replied, surprised. Really? Mine tastes like cinnamon.

[00:17:08] Lavender surmised. Mine tastes like both of those things. The different coloured drizzles are different flavours. Gold is cinnamon and the pink is berries. Betty was impressed by her children's observations. Lavender was right. The syrups tasted lovely on their own.

[00:17:31] But when blended together in a bite, they created a unique taste infusion. Betty liked the flavours of the syrups. However, the pancakes themselves didn't quite live up to her expectations. As fluffy as they looked, the pancakes were actually a little dry on the inside. It's such a shame, Betty thought as she wrote down her score.

[00:18:00] They have such potential. The recipe just needs a bit of tweaking. Betty checked the name on the tag. The sweet and sticky stack had been made by a young girl named Whizzily Witch. Betty made a mental note to give some advice to young Whizzily at a later date. She had good potential for someone so young.

[00:18:28] She just needed some more practice. Next, the family of judges turned to the third dish they had to taste test. The tag stated that it was a chocolate mud pie. And it looked like exactly that. Inside a big metal bowl, someone had cooked up a big batch of what looked like sludgy mud.

[00:18:55] It didn't look like the most appetizing of dishes. But Betty Badger hoped it would taste better than it looked. She and her three children dipped their tasting spoons into the chocolate mud pie and scooped out four dripping spoonfuls of the mixture. Bravely, they all licked the spoon.

[00:19:20] Betty politely swallowed the mud pie as her children tried to hide their expressions. She didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but it really was quite revolting. The very subtle hint of bitter chocolate was overwhelmed by the strong flavors of, you guessed it, earthy mud.

[00:19:46] Betty forced a polite smile and promptly drew a zero on her clipboard. The chocolate mud pie had not quite hit the spot. Betty and her children made their way through the dishes on the table, taste testing them all and scoring them fairly. The array of food was vast. Everything was completely different.

[00:20:13] They tasted Peanut the Armadillo's peanut butter shells and Mr. Moose's black forest moose, Camo the chameleon's rainbow twizzlers and Munchie the raccoon's freshly baked pizza rolls. Eventually, Betty and her three little badgers came to something a lot simpler. It was a loaf of bread.

[00:20:41] Although it wasn't just any loaf of bread. The golden, crusty loaf appeared to have dainty freckles of purple herbs embedded within it, and it smelled divine. Betty leaned closer and inhaled. It smelt of lavender. Delicate, sweet lavender.

[00:21:08] Betty cut a slice of the lavender loaf and divided it between herself, chip, ginger and lavender. To her surprise, a thick, gooey, melted layer of cheese oozed out of the walls of baked bread dough. It had a secret filling, and it looked and smelt divine.

[00:21:34] The badgers all tucked in and their eyes happily lit up in unison. The bread tasted good, very good. The crust was perfectly crispy and chewy, while the dough was so spongy and soft that it practically melted in their mouths, as well as the mild, nutty cheese.

[00:22:01] The taste of lavender was subtle, yet unmistakable. And Betty also detected hints of rosemary and thyme within the ingredients. The bread boasted unique flavours, and Betty thought that perhaps this was the most delicious bread she had ever tasted. Her little badgers seemed to agree, too.

[00:22:29] I give this a ten out of ten, declared Chip, writing a big ten on his clipboard. Me too. This is delicious stuff, Ginger agreed. I never thought I would enjoy bread so much, but this is so nice. I could eat the whole loaf, admitted Lavender, before adding with a hint of mischief.

[00:22:59] I also like that it is named after me. Betty chuckled and wrote her score on her clipboard in secret. She had to admit, this lavender loaf was the tastiest item she had eaten so far in the contest. Betty picked up the tag attached to the bread plate to see who had baked such a standout entry.

[00:23:24] But upon lifting it, she realised that there was no name written on the back. The lavender loaf had been submitted by an anonymous baker. Whose entry is this lavender loaf? Betty inquired, looking around at the crowd of curious contestants lingering nearby. Her question was initially met with silence.

[00:23:53] Nobody seemed to be coming forward to claim the lavender loaf as their own. All of a sudden, she heard a couple of animals whispering and noticed shuffling in the crowd. A few animals were shepherding a hedgehog to the front of them. The hedgehog stepped forward with confusion, carrying fistfuls of complimentary mini doughnuts.

[00:24:22] What's going on? The hedgehog asked. Betty smiled and repeated. I'm looking for the owner of this lavender loaf. There is no name attached to it. Does it belong to you? The hedgehog giggled, a little embarrassed, and confessed. Oh, yes. Sorry. That is mine. I must have forgotten to write my name on the tag. My name is Prickles.

[00:24:53] Betty smiled and nodded. She looked at the head. She looked at the back of the bag.

[00:25:01] She looked at the back of the tag with her pen. as the best she had tasted, the lavender loaf.

[00:25:31] Once they had sampled every delicious entry in the bake-off, Betty and her little badgers consulted their clipboards to work out who had received the most points. Several entries had scored highly, and so many had been delicious. If Betty could pick several winners, she would. However, the one entry that unsurprisingly came out top

[00:26:00] was Prickles the Hedgehog's Lavender Loaf. The family of badgers all agreed that it was their favourite dish. Prickles was undoubtedly a skilled baker worthy of working with them in the bakery. With their decision made, Betty stepped out in front of the gathered crowds to happily make her announcement. Hello, everyone, she began.

[00:26:30] Thank you to all who took the time to enter the bake-off today. There have been so many fantastic dishes that it has been hard to choose a winner. Nevertheless, we have chosen someone who got a fantastic score of ten out of ten across the board. The crowd began to mutter amongst themselves, impressed by this score.

[00:27:00] Betty announced, Please put your hands, paws, claws and wings together for the winner of our sleepy forest bake-off. Prickles the Hedgehog's Lavender Loaf. The crowd cheered and parted, revealing a shocked Prickles the Hedgehog

[00:27:29] standing in the centre with another donut frozen in mid-air halfway towards his mouth. The stunned Hedgehog could barely move in surprise. He hadn't expected to win. Noticing that the Hedgehog was a bit starstruck, the little badgers decided to help him out and rushed over to bring him forward.

[00:27:56] They dressed the Hedgehog in a wooden crown and draped a golden banner across his spiky shoulders, crowning Prickles the winner of the bake-off. The crowds continued to applaud the successful baker and Betty stepped up to shake Prickles' hand, finally snapping him out of his bewilderment. Congratulations, Prickles,

[00:28:24] Betty said gently. I look forward to working with you. With skills like yours, I have no doubt that my bakery is remaining in good hands. How does every Saturday morning sound? Prickles blushed. Thank you, he whispered. I've always wanted to be a baker.

[00:28:55] Betty smiled kindly and whispered back. Now that the competition was over, the remaining delicious entries were all up for grabs and the crowds moved forwards towards the tables to help themselves. Of course, Prickles, the hedgehog's winning lavender loaf, was the first thing to go and every creature who devoured a piece

[00:29:25] declared that it was the tastiest bread they had enjoyed in a long time. It wasn't long before everything that had been cooked up for the contest was gobbled down, even the chocolate mud pie. Betty Badger's Sleepy Forest Bake Off had been a roaring success. Everyone who attended had a great time,

[00:29:53] whether they were a competitor or a spectator. The competition had encouraged people to enjoy experimenting in their kitchens and a love of baking was rekindled across Sleepy Forest. But best of all for Betty, she had found an excellent new chef to join her in her bakery kitchen.

[00:30:21] When Prickles' first morning on the job came around, the little hedgehog was initially nervous. But the Badger family soon made him feel right at home. Chip gave Prickles a tour of the kitchen and Ginger showed him where all the ingredients were stored. Lavender described what Prickles could expect of a morning in the bakery,

[00:30:49] while Betty wrote today's menu on the kitchen chalkboard. When she was done, the little Badgers and Prickles gathered around to see what they would be whipping up in the kitchen this morning. To Prickles the hedgehog's delight, his prize-winning lavender loaf was on the list. I know customers will be very excited to experience your baking in the shop

[00:31:19] for the first time today, Betty explained. So what better way to show off what you can do than by selling your lavender loaf? Prickles was grateful for the opportunity to share his delicious, herby, cheesy creation with the customers. And he grinned from spike to spike.

[00:31:47] Please can I help you make them, Prickles? Little Lavender requested. After all, your loaves do share the same name as me. Prickles giggled and graciously accepted Lavender's offer of help. Together, Prickles and Lavender whipped up a dozen portions of prize-winning lavender loaf.

[00:32:15] The kitchen smelt positively scrumptious. The herbaceous scent of the fresh bread wafted through into the bakery shop and out of the front door, tantalising the tummies of the keen customers already queuing up outside. Meanwhile, Betty, Chip and Ginger baked up the remaining cakes strudels and pastries

[00:32:43] that were on today's menu. Then, when everything was ready, they carried it all out onto the shop floor and stocked up the shelves and cabinets. Betty Badger's bakery was ready to open for business. Betty, Chip and Ginger took up their usual positions in the shop whilst Prickles returned to the kitchen

[00:33:13] with Lavender to continue baking further batches of everything to restock the shelves with. The shop door flew open and the team served their long line of eager customers. As expected, Prickles' Lavender loaves flew off the shop shelves and by the time the bakery closed,

[00:33:41] they were the most popular delicacy of the day. Betty was thrilled that Prickles' first day had been such a hit and Prickles was ecstatic that his baking was finally being appreciated. Once the shop floor was cleared out and the kitchen was wiped down, the team of bakers celebrated with a leftover

[00:34:11] cupcake each. Welcome to the team, Betty congratulated Prickles, clinking her cupcake against his in a toast. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Prickles thanked Betty gratefully. It is such an honour to work in your bakery.

[00:34:40] But Betty assured Prickles that the honour was all hers. She counted her lucky stars that she got to share her dream of running a successful bakery with her children and now also with a new friend.