The Cakenator (originally titled "Robot Strawberry") is the 21st episode of the first season of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry In The Big City. It premiered on January 22nd, 2022.
Summary[]
Strawberry Shortcake is swamped with all her orders. Luckily Lemon Meringue’s Cakenator 6 is ready to help… but maybe it’s a bit TOO helpful.
Plot[]
A large crowd can be seen at the Extraordinary Berry. Lemon Meringue, standing next to a large tarp, greets Strawberry Shortcake as she serves a customer. Strawberry, covered with flour stains, explains to Lemon that she's swamped with a huge workload, having to serve her many customers while also baking 75 peach trifles for Peach Trifle. Lemon asks her if she needs help, to which Strawberry says that what she needs is two of herself.
Cutaway: Lemon Meringue declares this is the moment she has been waiting for.
She pulls away the tarp, revealing her newest invention to her friend as she introduces "The Cakenator 6". Strawberry calls it cool before realizing what Lemon built, repeating the name in a questioning tone, which Lemon confirms with a nod. Strawberry then asks what happened to the first five Cakenators, which makes Lemon experience a flashback.
The flashback shows what happened to the first five Cakenators. The first one exploded after Lemon tested its leg movement. The second mixed a bowl of batter and showed it to Lemon, the batter exploded in her face, with the Cakenator following suit. The third tossed a cake at Lemon's face, who was holding up a baking tray as a shield, before exploding. The fourth dropped two pies as Lemon braced for impact, but a propellor sprouted from Cakenator 4's head and the upper torso flew away instead. And then the lower half exploded. The fifth seemed to work well, giving Lemon a cupcake, and then exploded, as the fourth Cakenator flew by to take the cupcake from Lemon. The flashback ends, as Lemon just tells Strawberry not to worry about it.
Strawberry is still unsure but Lemon insists to give the Cakenator a chance, telling her friend that it can bake the perfect treat, so it's just like having two of her around. Strawberry relents, and asks Lemon what to do. Lemon hands her a sparkberry, telling Strawberry to insert it into the Cakenator's mouth and tell it what to bake.
Strawberry does so, activating the Cakenator, which introduces itself to her, Strawberry requests for it to create 75 mini peach trifles, and it accepts the request. Strawberry explains that she uses the lucky spoon to mix it, but the robot stops her, saying that the "lucky spoon does not compute". It instead activates its "mixer fingers", as its left hand transforms into an electric mixer. The Cakenator takes the bowl and begins mixing the batter.
Cutaway: Strawberry admits that ever since the "oven fiasco" she was nervous about more "Lemon-ventions", but she's impressed by the Cakenator's efficiency.
Strawberry tells the Cakenator that the mini-cakes take half an hour to bake and it shouldn't rush. The Cakenator responds that "30 minutes does not compute", activating its "repulsor hands" and fires a laser beam from its palms, immediately baking the trays of cakes. Strawberry, slightly intimidated by the display, decides to brush past it and tells the robot not to rush layering the peaches and cream, as it takes finesse... until she sees it already done with the mini peach trifles before she even finished her sentence.
Later in the day, the Cakenator greets Mrs. Crumbcake and Honeydew Sorbet. Honeydew orders an apple fritter, but Strawberry apologizes and tells her that they already sold out of fritters. The Cakenator tells her that "sold out does not compute", activating its "Emergency Apple Fritter Protocol" and quickly bakes a fresh apple fritter for Honeydew. Strawberry guesses The Cakenator doesn't need her, and tells it that she's going to take a break. The Cakenator tells her that "a little break does not compute", which Strawberry, defeated, says "of course it doesn't", as she walks off.
Cutaway: Strawberry questions what kind of baker she's supposed to be if a robot can do her job perfectly. She begins feeling obsolete, and wonders if she's not as special as she thought.
Strawberry sulks as she stares out of the other side of the truck, when Honeydew Sorbet runs up to her. She tells Strawberry that her fritter is different than her usual, which Strawberry immediately identifies as The Cakenator forgetting the dash of cinnamon, and quickly adds it. Huckleberry Pie comes up next, complaining that the "metal version" of Strawberry put berries on his pie, while another customer complains that it won't give her extra powdered sugar on her order. Strawberry apologizes to them, giving Huck a berryless pie and the other customer extra extra powdered sugar. The Cakenator notices this and confronts Strawberry, confused at why she's giving imperfect items to the customers. Strawberry simply tells it that the orders don't need to be perfect, they just have to be made with love, referring to it as the "Strawberry Shortcake Touch". The robot cannot compute the concept, malfunctioning and exploding, blowing everyberry away.
Lemon approaches Strawberry's truck in the aftermath, and asks what happened. Strawberry explains that she told The Cakenator that the treats didn't need to be perfect and just needed a little love, and it blew up. Lemon repeats the word "love", contemplates for a moment, and figures that tracks. Strawberry tells Lemon that it's probably better if she just handles the baking by herself. Lemon is fine with that, and says she has another idea anyways. Strawberry jokingly asks if it's "The Cakenator 7". Lemon then imagines herself piloting a giant Cakenator mecha as she destroys Big Apple City. Lemon tells Strawberry that it's something like that, as she walks away from Strawberry's truck laughing maniacally.
Cast[]
- Ana Sani as Strawberry Shortcake, The Cakenator 6, Honeydew Sorbet
- Andrea Libman as Lemon Meringue, Berry Mary
- Vincent Tong as Huckleberry Pie
Non-Voiced Appearance[]
- The Cakenators 1-5 (flashback, exploded)
- The Cakenator 4
- Mr. Mangosteen
- Mrs. Crumbcake
- Peanut Butter Crisp
- Old Man
- Hippy Berry
- Deliveryboy
- Salesberry
- Customer #1
- Peach Trifle (mentioned)
Trivia[]
- While the episode was originally titled "Robot Strawberry", its official title is actually "The Cakenator", as seen on the Netflix and YouTube versions.
- This episode marks the debut of The Cakenators, which will semi-regularly appear in the series after this episode.
- This episode coins the term "Lemon-Vention" when referring to Lemon's gadgets, which will go on to be a semi-regular term in the series.
- Berry Mary's single line in the episode makes her the fourth background character in the series to speak, after the Old Man, Spicy Crust, and the Hippy Berry.
- She is not named in the episode itself, and her name is instead listed in the credits. Her noticably generic name is likely due to her not being a notable enough character to justify an actual name, like Grandma Buttermilk Beignet.
Continuity[]
- Peach Trifle gets mentioned for the first time since her appearance in "Fright Fall", and it is established she's a regular customer for Strawberry now.
- Lemon's invention she shows off in the episode explodes, continuing the gag set up in "Oven Trouble".
- Lemon saying that she's not surprised the Cakenator exploded because it didn't understand love could be a callback to Lemon's own aversion to open affection.
- Strawberry mentions the "oven fiasco" from "Oven Trouble" as a reason she was hesitant to try out another of Lemon's inventions.
Errors[]
- The baking mess on Strawberry's hair and face disappears when Lemon introduces the Cakenator 6.
- The customers can be seen blown by the explosion, but after the Cakenator explodes and Lemon arrives the customers are nowhere to be seen.
Video[]
Gallery[]
Click here to see the gallery of the episode.
Transcript[]
Click here to see the transcript of the episode.