Martha Bakes

Martha Bakes is the 31st episode of season 1. It appeared on April 6, 2009.

Summary
Helen is sad when her drawing doesn't win the art competition, so Mom decides to bake her a cake to cheer her up. But when a last–minute order comes in at the flower shop, Martha and Skits decide to take over. Do two dogs with no thumbs (and a cookbook) have what it takes to bake?

Recap
The Lorraine family dogs are eating, when Helen calls Mariella. Martha asks what's going on and Helen and Mariella (who is holding Jake) explain that Helen entered an art competition and the winning drawings are being put in the Library so Helen is stopping by the library on the way to school to see if she won. Martha thinks Helen probably did win and she wants to come too, to which Mariella says yes.

Outside Wagstaff City Elementary School, Helen has lost so she is sad. Mariella, putting her hand on Helen's shoulder, tells her not to be sad as she's sure her drawing was terrific. Helen is still sad and thinks Mariella just said that because she's her mother. Martha says that Mariella is not and Helen's a wonderful artist but Helen thinks that Martha just said that because she's her dog. Helen, still sad, leaves for school.

Martha, Skits and Mariella are now at Mariella's Garden Store. Mariella and Martha are still feeling sorry for Helen so Mariella decides to bake Helen a cake. Martha rolls on the floor and asks for a cake as well so Mariella offers to let Martha lick the mixing bowl, which Martha agrees with. Mariella then gets a phone call from Miss Simmons, who has doubled the number of floral arrangements for her dinner party, which Martha thinks is good news but Mariella disagrees because it means she won't have time to bake Helen's cake. Martha agrees that it's bad news. Skits doesn't know why so she explains that if Mariella (who she calls "Mom") can't get to bake the cake then Helen won't be cheered up and they won't get to lick the mixing bowl. She then gets an idea: they bake the cake themselves. On that, the dogs run out of the building. Mariella enters, having the idea of getting the bakery to make a cake, but notices Martha is gone.

Martha and Skits walk down the sidewalk. Martha decides she wants to bake a large fancy cake she saw in a movie once. They then run into their house.

In the kitchen, Martha is at a loss for finding a recipe. Skits doesn't know what that is so Martha explains. Skits grabs a cookbook and puts it down on the floor but as he and Martha are dogs, they can't read it. Martha then has an idea.

In the living room, Martha and Skits watch Helen's Cooking With Kids D.V.D. where the lady onscreen says that they are going to make a cake from scratch. Martha thinks that means they just scratch and a cake shows up, so they try scratching but they are interrupted by the woman who coincidentally tells them that she doesn't mean specifically that, then explains what "from scratch" actually means, then telling the viewers to make sure they have all the ingredients. Martha asks "Ingredients?". By another coincidence, the narrator says "Yes, ingredients", then defines "Ingredients". Martha then notes how the ingredients for mud are water and dirt, the ingredients for cinnamon toast are, well, cinnamon and toast, and the ingredients for "cinnamon-mud-toast" are water, dirt, cinnamon and toast. The woman on the D.V.D. then lists the ingredients.

In the kitchen, Martha says that the first ingredients are eggs, milk and butter. Skits opens the fridge by sticking his muzzle in a tea towel that's tied to the fridge but it closes and unties. However, Skits manages to open the fridge again and take out a carton of milk.

He brings it back to the living room and Martha follows. Skits drops it on the floor and it spills. He then brings in a carton of eggs with Martha telling him to be careful but when he drops them, they break. Martha sighs and gives him a disapproving stare which intimidates Skits and he gives an apologetic grin.

The dogs then visit the Parkingtons' house and Martha asks Mrs Parkington if they can borrow two eggs. This surprises her.

They try to bring the eggs home but drop them to chase a squirrel, breaking them.

They then borrow two more eggs from Mrs Parkington but Skits breaks one in the dog door and steps on the other so they go back to the Parkingtons' house.

In the garden store, Mariella talks on the phone to the baker, who says she will have the cake over by three but is confused by Mariella's statement "I'll call my dog and tell her to pick it up".

Martha and Skits finally manage to bring two eggs into the living room but the milk is spilt.

They go back to the Parkingtons' place, where Mrs Parkington is getting a bit impatient and brings them milk, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, salt, milk, butter, two more eggs, two greased cake pans, water and flour which she puts into a waggon, asking them if they're sure those ingredients are all they need. Martha says she is positive as she memorised the recipe. She then recites the ingredients and is about to pull the waggon but Mrs Parkington does it for her, noting that she doesn't want Martha to spill it as she's out of eggs.

Mariella phones Martha and notes "that's odd, my dog isn't answering the phone", which confuses a customer.

On the D.V.D., the cook says to combine the flour, baking powder in a mixing bowl. Martha and Skits don't know how to get mixing bowls so Skits fetches their food bowls to use instead. They're supposed to pour all the dry ingredients except the sugar into the bowl so Martha tastes the sugar to make sure it's sugar. She then tries to pour the flour but spills it so they mix the ingredients on the floor instead, getting covered in white powder in the process. The D.V.D. then tells them to mix the butter and sugar in another bowl. Martha mixes the butter and sugar in her food dish.

At the garden store, Mariella apologises to Mrs Parkington over the phone and says she'll have Danny pick up eggs, butter and milk on his way home from work, stating that it's no trouble as Danny had to stop by the bakery anyway. "Very well," says Mrs Parkinton grumpily. "But see that she doesn't make a habit of it". She then, still grumpy, tells John that she would have stayed at the place that belonged to her great-aunt Martha (regardless of whether or not there were ghosts) if she'd known that the dogs next door were going to borrow her ingredients. This scares John and he runs under the table.

Back at the garden store, Mariella wonders what Martha would want with butter. She then decides she has to finish the order and go home.

In the Lorraine living room, the batter is all dusty from being on the carpet and a toy car and a hairclip are stuck in it but the dogs don't care. The woman onscreen tells them to beat the eggs. Martha reluctantly hits one but the woman says that she doesn't mean beat as in hitting them. She then demonstrates beating and warns the viewers not to drop any shell into the batter. Martha tries to remove the egg shell but decides she likes the shell as it makes it crunchy. The narrator then tells them to mix all the ingredients and pour them into the cake tins. Martha doesn't think she's able to pour as she lacks thumbs so she decides to dump it onto the floor, mix it there and scratch it into the cake tins. They begin to do that.

Daniel is walking home from work, talking on the phone to Mariella, wondering why Martha would be borrowing groceries from the neighbours.

In the Lorraine living room, the woman on the D.V.D. tells the viewers to turn on the oven, set it to three hundred and fifty degrees and bake for thirty minutes. Martha and Skits, being dogs, can't turn on the oven, so when she sees Howie delivering the mail, she asks him to do it for them. They shake the powder off their coats and Martha thanks Howie for helping them. He leaves but Martha is worried as she doesn't know how long thirty minutes is and neither she nor Skits can open the oven. Then Martha thinks of something.

She then asks for a pizza delivery in thirty minutes.

Pete delivers the pizza, takes out the cake, and Martha asks him to put the pizza on their bill. Pete says that he's never seen a dog bake before. Helen, Jake and Mariella arrive home and smell the baking. Martha shouts "Surprise!".

In the kitchen, Martha tells Helen that she and Skits baked her a cake from scratch to cheer her up. This surprises Mariella and Helen. Martha wants Helen to eat it but she doesn't want to because Mariella thinks it's too special and Helen is put off by the dust, eggshell, hairclip, toy car and dog hair that have been baked into it. However, she doesn't say this out loud and instead backs on Mariella's reason. Martha says that she has to to be cheered up but Helen says she already has been cheered up. Daniel then enters with cake and Mariella explains that she "didn't know her dogs could bake" so she had the baker make a cake. Helen decides to eat her dad's cake and keep Martha and Skits's cake but Martha thinks it's a waste of cake.

The Lorraines then eat a slice of the cake Danny brought home while Mariella brings Jake upstairs for his nap but notes the spilt eggs and milk on the rug, however, Martha cheers her up by stating that "you have to break a few eggs to make a cake".

Characters

 * Martha


 * Skits


 * Helen
 * Mariella Lorraine
 * John
 * Mrs. Parkington
 * Jake Lorraine
 * Carolina (background)
 * Truman Oatley (background)
 * Miss Simmons (unseen)
 * Cook (on D.V.D., not in person)
 * Great-Aunt Martha (mentioned)
 * Baker
 * Daniel Lorraine
 * Howie
 * Pete

Vocabulary
recipe, ingredients, from scratch, blend, beat, mix, pour, bake, oven, stir

Trivia

 * When Mariella noticed Martha was gone upon thinking of asking the bakery for cake, she didn't notice Skits was gone.
 * Martha uses the phrase "Rats!" as an exclamation. This is one of the few times she knows the meaning of a slang phrase without having been taught it.
 * Martha says she's "feeling blue". She learned this phrase in Martha's Blue Period.