kipper's café

It’s fall now, so Kipper makes sure there’s a steady supply of baked goods for his little cafe. 

The beginnings of a hearty fish stew is already simmering in a big pot as the soup of the day, and fresh baked bread cools in racks along the wall. There’s the normal sourdough and white and wheat breads, but now pumpkin loaves and cinnamon swirl bread join them on the rack. 

There’s still some time before the lunch crowd comes in, which he uses to make some pie fillings. The crusts are already baked and ready to be filled in their round tins, and they look so pretty as he starts filling them one by one. A couple are filled with pumpkin pie mixture, and another with mixed berries. There’s a sweet potato and a pecan pie as well by the time he’s satisfied. 

He rolls out the top crusts and carefully adds cute little dyed dough motifs to line the edges of each. The little cut-out stamps that he has makes tiny green frog faces and little red, yellow, and orange leaves. Perfect for adding a sweet little touch for when he has to cut them into slices to serve to customers. 

He puts them all in his oven, and it’s a bit overcrowded but he makes it work. It’s almost enough to make him wish he could smell the pies bake, but he doesn’t spend long being wistful over something so silly. 

Instead he takes a break in the few minutes before he expects customers will start to arrive, and pulls some magic cocoa powder out from a cabinet. He makes it on the stove with milk and starry sugar just like he would for a normal customer, and the magic in the powder makes the resulting smoke waft up in pretty shapes and sparkles. 

He contentedly sits on his stool, soaking in the warmth of the cup and the magic emanating from the drink.