Doggo and Kitty Bake a Cake (Pre-Intermediate)

Hello my Lovely Learners, and welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great. I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s pre-intermediate story is called Doggo and Kitty Bake a Cake. As always, the transcript and PDF are available at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com, and you can find the link in the description.

 So if you are on YouTube, hello! If you are not listening on YouTube: good news. You can see my beautiful face on YouTube. Now, if you’re thinking, Ariel, you don’t have a beautiful face. You have an ugly face. Well, even better news! You don’t have to watch me on YouTube. You can just listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And while you’re listening, why don’t you rethink your attitude, yeah? Maybe think about how actually my face is beautiful and you just don’t know how to appreciate it.

So, yeah, the last few episodes of the podcast did not feature on YouTube because I moved to China and I hadn’t set up everything to record video. I didn’t have a good PC to edit video on, but I now have a new PC, which is just to the right of me, although you can’t see it and you certainly can’t hear it. So editing video will be a doddle. Now, when we say something is a doddle, it means it will be easy. It will be a doddle, a piece of cake. It won’t take long because this new computer is strong, just like me. And beautiful, because remember, my face is what? Beautiful.

So those of you who are keen eyed, those of you who are good at noticing things, will realise that this is a relevelled story. So this is another version of Doggo and Kitty Bake a Cake, which was actually the first ever story to appear on the podcast, the first ever episode. So, wow, that’s a bit of a throwback. Almost seven years ago, I started this. Phew!

The original version of the story was beginner level, but to be honest, at that point I was still quite new to relevelling stories. I hadn’t quite figured out the format, so it was a bit too difficult for that level. Fortunately, today’s episode is pre-intermediate, so I think it works better.

And actually this version of the story is adapted from my books. If you don’t know, I wrote a series of books where I did 10 stories in four different levels, and this is from the book, but it’s not exactly the same. And let me tell you why.

So when I’m explaining vocabulary on the podcast, I have to assume that most people won’t be watching my beautiful face on YouTube and therefore won’t be able to see any images. Therefore, I’m more limited in how I can explain new words. I have to do everything through sound, whereas in a book, I can use pictures and I can rely on the fact that the reader has more time to absorb new words. They can read the words, and so it’s easier for them to take in more new words.

So all of that is to say the version of this story that you will find in my book maybe has a few more words in it. I very slightly changed it to make it work better in a podcast format. Maybe that’s just creating extra work for myself. I don’t really know, but I just wanna make things as accessible as possible for all of you, my lovely learners, my lovely loveliest learners in the whole darn world.

Anyway, if you’re thinking, hmm, I would really love to read these books so I can compare the different versions, then you should go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Book and purchase them yourself.

Now, they’re not available everywhere in the world, but I’ve managed to order them here to China, so anything is possible. But I guess technically not because I don’t think you can order them to like Iran, but I was not expecting them to arrive safely in China because they were printed in like the UK, and it did. So delivery: it’s magic.

So for the benefit of those on YouTube, I am now holding up the book so you can see it. I recently changed the back cover because it had a very old picture of me and I changed it to a new picture. So if you want the new edition with the newer picture, then buy it again, I guess. Uh, it’s available in most places.

And for the benefit of those of you listening… That’s me playing with the book. You’re welcome. 

OK, I’ll just go through some words that are in today’s story

A sandpit, also known as a sandbox in America, is a wooden box full of sand. You find sandpits in children’s playgrounds for children to play in. Children usually play in sandpits with plastic buckets, spades and water, and sandpits can hide nasty surprises such as stones, insects, and sometimes even worse things…

Nuts are a type of food that you find in the forest… and your local supermarket! Nuts are small, hard brown things that grow on trees or bushes. Some types of nuts are peanuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts and so on. Often nuts have an outside shell that you have to crack – break open – to eat the nut. You might use a nutcracker to crack open the shell. You can even get fancy Russian nutcrackers that look like soldiers – you might know about nutcrackers from the Tchaikovsky ballet The Nutcracker. Nuts are very good food for your brain and contain a lot of energy.

Another thing that you should crack open before you eat is an egg, because just like nuts, eggs have shells. It can be particularly annoying when you’ve boiled an egg to get the shell off – or at least, I find it hard! Cracking eggs is generally something that takes a while to learn when you’re a child, as you might crack them too hard and get egg everywhere.

Divine literally means ‘of God’ or ‘related to God’, but we also use it to mean ‘very good’, often when talking about food or drink. For example, ‘This cake is divine. How long did it take you to make?’ or ‘This podcast is divine. And you said it’s made by Ariel Goodbody?’

When you pretend, you do something but you don’t really do it. For example, if you pretend to eat, you don’t actually put the food in your mouth. If you pretend to drink, you don’t actually put the drink in your mouth. If you pretend to know something, you say, ‘Oh yes, I know that!’ but really you don’t.

A tail is a long thing that animals have on their backs. Dogs, cats, foxes and so on all have tails. Humans do not have tails. When dogs are happy, they wag their tails, they move their tails quickly. Sometimes, if a dog is standing next to you and is very happy, his wagging tail will hit your leg. This can be quite cute, if you like that sort of thing. I don’t.

When a child is very bad, they are naughty. For example, naughty children hit other children, steal things and don’t do their homework. Naughty children are not nice. In Harry Potter, Dudley is a very naughty child, but his parents don’t punish him for it.

When your stomach rumbles, it makes a sound like [rumbling sound]. When your stomach rumbles, your body is saying, ‘I’m hungry! Go eat.’ But it can be quite embarrassing if other people hear your stomach rumble. My stomach rumbles very loudly sometimes.

Mud is dirt that is wet. When it rains, the dirt, the ground, turns wet and becomes mud. Children love playing in mud, and pigs especially love playing in mud. If you get mud on your clothes then you’ll need to wash them.

OK, so listen and enjoy!

Doggo and Kitty Bake a Cake

Once there was a dog and cat, called Doggo and Kitty. Doggo was a very handsome dog, and Kitty was a charming and gorgeous cat. The pair of them lived together in a little cottage next to a forest, and they got on very well.

One day, Kitty looked at their calendar. It was five years out of date, but Kitty saw no reason to change it, because the years didn’t change, did they?

‘Doggo!’ said Kitty. ‘According to the calendar, today is my birthday.’

‘Yay!’ said Doggo. ‘Birthdays are a wonderful occasion. We will have to celebrate. But how? I have never celebrated a birthday before.’

Kitty was sure that they had celebrated a birthday before, since they happened every year. But she wasn’t certain, and she didn’t want to sound stupid, so she said nothing.

‘Yes, we must celebrate!’ said Kitty. ‘We’ll have to think of the most wonderful way to celebrate the most important birthday!’

While Doggo and Kitty thought about this, so did another group of people: the children, who lived on the other side of the forest. They loved Doggo and Kitty, but they missed Kitty’s birthday last year, so this year they planned on surprising her with a cake.

The problem was, they didn’t have the ingredients for a cake and they didn’t know how to actually bake one. They had no flour, milk and eggs, and they didn’t even realise that you needed those for a good cake! After all, when you see a finished cake, you don’t see the flour, milk and eggs. So they used whatever they had around and made their own recipe.

First, they found an old cake tin, which they would bake the cake in. Then they took some sand from the sandpit in the garden and poured it into the tin, because the best cakes were always soft, like sand. Still, it couldn’t be too soft, so they poured in some water and mixed it with the sand, getting plenty of water and sand on the floor as they did so.

Now they had a lovely brown cake, which only needed decoration to be perfect. So they took some small, white stones from the garden and put them on top of it, because nice cakes always had nuts and things like that on top. Finally, they put the cake tin in the oven and waited for an hour, although the oven wasn’t switched on, because only their parents were allowed to do that.

Out of the oven came a wonderful cake! The children said, ‘Wow!’ and really wanted to try it, but they knew that would be unfair. It was Kitty’s cake, after all! So they carried it through the forest to the wooden cottage where Doggo and Kitty lived.

‘Hello, Doggo and Kitty!’ the children said. ‘We baked you a cake and brought it here as a surprise for Kitty’s birthday.’

‘A surprise!’ said Kitty. ‘How wonderful. We were thinking about how to celebrate, and this is perfect!’

‘The cake tastes divine,’ said the children. They weren’t sure what ‘divine’ meant, but their parents always used it, so it must mean something good. ‘You’re going to love it.’

‘Well then!’ said Doggo. ‘Come into the kitchen and we’ll sit down to eat.’

But when they saw the cake, Doggo and Kitty realised that the cake was awful. The soft cake was actually sand, and the delicious nuts were actually stones. Nobody could eat such a cake, but Doggo and Kitty loved the children, so they cut up the cake and served the slices.

‘You first, Doggo,’ said Kitty. ‘You’re the oldest, so you get to eat first.’

‘Oh no, I couldn’t!’ said Doggo. ‘It’s your birthday. You should eat first!’

So Kitty held the slice of cake up to her nose and smelled it. It really smelled quite horrible, like wet earth, so Kitty moved her lips, pretending to eat it.

‘Yum yum!’ she said. ‘Oh, it’s such a delicious cake, I don’t think I could eat any more!’

Doggo and the children soon understood the game of pretend. They all held up their slices, smelled them and said, ‘Yum yum!’ and then put them down again.

‘Thank you so much, children,’ said Kitty, glad she hadn’t actually had to eat the cake. ‘We’ve never had such a lovely cake before.’

The children laughed, said goodbye and went home. Doggo and Kitty took the plates of cake to the river outside and threw them into the water.

‘How nice of the children to do that for us,’ said Doggo, ‘but really, who could eat such an awful cake? Still, I am now very hungry for a real cake.’

‘Me too,’ said Kitty, her stomach rumbling. ‘Well, since it’s my birthday, why don’t we bake one? Although I don’t actually know how to bake a cake.’

‘I know, I know!’ said Doggo, his tail wagging. ‘It’s really quite easy, Kitty. All you have to do is add your favourite food to the cake. If you add five delicious foods, then the cake will be five times as good. If you add ten delicious foods, then the cake will be ten times as good.’

‘What if we add a hundred delicious things?’ said Kitty.

‘Uh, I can’t count that high!’ said Doggo. ‘Maybe… a hundred times as good? Wow, that cake would taste really amazing!’

‘Oh, this is wonderful!’ said Kitty. ‘We’re going to make the most delicious cake ever!’

So Doggo and Kitty took out their cake tin and got to cooking.

First, they took flour, milk and eggs out of the cupboard and poured them into the bowl. Unlike the children, they had the basic ingredients, although they threw the eggs into the bowl with the shells still on! Then they mixed until it was soft.

‘Now what do we do?’ asked Kitty.

‘Now we add all our favourite things!’ said Doggo. ‘What kind of cake do you want to make?’

‘Hmm,’ said Kitty, ‘well, above all, it must be sweet.’

So she poured a kilogram of sugar into the bowl.

‘But not just sweet!’ said Doggo. ‘The Big People always like to have “balanced flavours”.’

So he poured a kilogram of salt into the bowl, to make it even.

‘And let’s add some butter and jam,’ said Kitty, ‘since we always have that for breakfast.’

‘You have jam,’ said Doggo, ‘but I like cheese on my bread. So let’s add that instead.’

‘Fine, fine,’ said Kitty, ‘but we need something fatty, too. How about bacon?’

‘Perfect!’ said Doggo. ‘And let’s not forget nuts. I really was looking forward to having the nuts on the children’s cake, until I realised they were stones.’

‘Nuts are fine,’ said Kitty, ‘but remember, Doggo! Balanced flavours! Let’s have some cucumber, too.’

‘And bones!’ said Doggo, jumping and wagging his tail in excitement. ‘Oh, I can’t eat a cake without bones! They’re the best thing in the world!’

‘Maybe for you,’ said Kitty. ‘But fine, if you’re adding bones, I’m adding mice.’

‘Oh,’ said Doggo, ‘if we’re adding meat, throw in a few sausages, too.’

‘And finally, cream!’ said Kitty. ‘Every good dessert has cream in it!’

‘Fantastic thinking,’ said Doggo, ‘and I think that would go well with a bit of garlic.’

‘And chocolate,’ said Kitty.

So they added all their favourite foods to the bowl, which was all the food they had in the house. They mixed and mixed, working over the mountain of food in the bowl, until it was soft.

‘Phew!’ said Doggo. ‘This is going to be an excellent cake. All we have to do now is bake it.’

So they carried the huge cake to the oven, careful not to drop it, and pushed it inside. Unlike the children, they were allowed to switch the oven on, so their cake actually baked. While they waited, they went and played cards in the other room. When the cake was done, they took it out and put it on the table.

‘Oh, what a handsome cake!’ said Doggo.

‘Not “handsome”, Doggo,’ said Kitty. ‘Pretty! But we can’t eat it yet, or we’ll burn our mouths. We have to let it cool.’

So they opened the window and put the cake on the windowsill.

‘Hmm,’ said Kitty, ‘since the children brought us a cake, I think we should do the same. But I don’t want to carry it all the way through the forest.’

‘No problem,’ said Doggo. ‘We’ll invite them over here again.’

So they walked through the forest, very excited about their baking success, all the way to the children’s house.

But while they were away, a very naughty dog passed by the wooden cottage. The smell of the cake came towards him, and his stomach rumbled like a lorry.

‘Wow!’ he said. ‘I’ve never smelt something so delicious before. It’s like somebody mixed together a hundred delicious foods into one! I must find it.’

He followed the smell until he found the cottage and saw the cake cooling. Oh, the cake looked as good as it smelled! The dog’s eyes and mouth began to water.

So the dog jumped onto the windowsill and ate the cake. The rumbling in his stomach went quiet, and he went to the river and drank lots of water. Then, feeling tired and satisfied, he sat down by a big tree.

Except he didn’t feel satisfied. The cake had tasted so good going in, but in his stomach it felt so bad. It felt like he’d eaten a hundred sticks and stones, or like there was a fire inside him!

‘Oof! Ow! Just what was in that cake?’ the dog asked himself.

When Doggo and Kitty returned with the children, they were shocked to find the cake gone.

‘Oh, no!’ said Kitty. ‘I am so sorry, children. I don’t know what happened!’

‘I think I know!’ said one of the children.

He pointed to the river, where the naughty dog was sitting by a tree.

‘That dog has a huge stomach. He must have eaten the cake!’

The naughty dog would’ve gotten up and run away, but he was in too much pain.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘It smelt so good, and looked so delicious, and I just couldn’t stop myself! But oh, how I regret it!’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Kitty. ‘Looking at you, I don’t think the cake was very nice, anyway. I have quite a weak stomach, so I’m glad you ate it instead of us!’

‘Well, I’m not glad!’ cried the dog, and they all laughed.

‘But there’s just one problem,’ said Doggo. ‘We were going to have that cake for dinner, and we put all of the food in the house into it. Now we have nothing to eat, and I’m so hungry!’

‘Not to worry, Doggo and Kitty,’ said the children. ‘Come and eat dinner at our house. We’ll make mud pie for dessert!’

So Doggo and Kitty followed the children back through the forest to have dinner at their house. Luckily, their parents cooked, and made a lovely dinner of soup, chicken and bones. Doggo and Kitty were very happy to be able to eat with some of the Big People, and the food was delicious, too. Much better than sand cake and mud pie! Still, they didn’t want to be rude, so they pretended to eat the children’s mud pie.

And the naughty dog? Well, he was in so much pain he couldn’t move an inch, and he sat up all night, crying as his stomach rumbled. But he learned his lesson. He would never steal from Doggo and Kitty again!

THE END

 Thank you for watching this episode of Easy Stories in English, or listening to this episode of Easy Stories in English, because you can do both!

I would love to hear what you thought of this episode and what you think of my new recording environment. I am working on improving the sound quality and I can maybe make it look nicer as well, so leave a comment on YouTube, Spotify or at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com. You choose! And don’t forget to come back in two weeks for the next episode.

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