A numerical puzzle

Someone has just been considerate enough to bring me back three cakes, of the small sponge variety, that sit in pleated, little paper cups, and that have icing sugar and other lovely things on top.

They said it was for my sweet tooth, but I've decided to ignore that slur on my hypoglycaemia research project.

Now I would have preferred to post a picture of the thing with a bite taken out, you know provide some visual context. Unfortunately my camera's fastest shutter speed wasn't up to the job of freeze-framing this fast-action, two stage chomp.

This photograph is therefore a valuable piece of cake history. Thinking to offer it to cake historians, I tried an internet search for: "historic pictures of cakes", but nothing was returned. Hmm, this kind of makes me wonder whether I've inadvertently stumbled on my purpose in life, my very own service to the Human Race. Establish a website purely devoted to historic pictures of cakes. I'll give it some though over cake number three, which is not yet history.

I know you'll have read the title of this post and be wondering whether, having removed one cake, and subtly hinted at the possible demise of another, I'm going to set you a complex arithmetic puzzle by asking you how many are left. No, no, no. Of course I wouldn't insult your intelligence this way. In fact, I have a much more complex puzzle to present.

Discerning viewers with an eye for detail will have noted a small blue cylindrical object, perched on that sugary, half-orange slice. Here then is the puzzle. This object is one of what would be called hundreds and thousands (that's sprinkles to American readers) had the cake been sprinkled liberally with similar items. However only one of these things accompanied my cake.

Therefore how do you refer to this object? Is it:
a hundreds and thousands?
a hundred and thousand?
a hundred and one?
a one?
some insignificant blue speck what just disappeared down my gullet?

Listening to: Susan McKeown, "Or Mhle Gr A Thousand Times My Love"
Thinking: that 'sprinkles' seems such a bland word