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AIBU?

To think this is a really fucking weird thing to do?

218 replies

SummersB · 15/02/2019 06:00

Brought a cake into work the other day - Banana & Blueberry, it was bloody lovely!
One of my colleagues asked me where I had the recipe from and I told her the author. I’ve previously made this before and have shared the recipe with a few of my colleagues, but in the interest of full disclosure I had no intention of sharing it with this particular one because to be honest I can’t stand her (she is a higher banding - band 6 nursing staff - and due to a massive chip in her shoulder she makes junior staff’s working life a misery by being patronising and belittling at every opportunity and is therefore really unpleasant to work with).
Another colleague just told me that a few days after I had brought my cake in she came into work with exactly the same cake, obviously having google searched the recipe and attempted to recreate it. We had a bit of a laugh about it because apparently it was shit as she’d burnt it and managed to make it really dry. But am I right in thinking that’s a really odd thing to do? Who tastes a cake their workmate baked, goes home, looks the recipe up online and comes in two days later saying “ta-da, look, you know the cake you made the other day - well I could have made any other cake in the world but I’ve decided to look it up and make exactly the same one and bring in to work too”? Or is it just me?

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panticus · 15/02/2019 06:03

To be honest I don't find that particularly weird but perhaps we don't have the full context. It sounds like she just really liked that cake!

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JasperKarat · 15/02/2019 06:06

I think you're over invested, and to not share a recipe because you don't like her is really petty. She liked your cake she gave the recipe a go herself, it didn't pan out as well, possibly at it was the first time she'd made it. If she was trying to one up you she wouldn't have brought it into work. You and your colleague chum sound bitchy.

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ChessieFL · 15/02/2019 06:06

It’s a bit weird to bring it into work just after you brought yours, yes. Not weird to look up the recipe and have a go at making it herself though.

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Singlenotsingle · 15/02/2019 06:06

Maybe she's just got a cake making inferiority complex?

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JenniferJareau · 15/02/2019 06:07

That is odd, it's not just you.

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ShortandSweet96 · 15/02/2019 06:07

You sound a bit jealous, either that or this woman reallt winds you up Grin

Its a cake.. you told her the author of the recipe.. she made one herself. Did you think you owned the rights to that particular cake now? Hmm

I doubt anyone will say "confront her about making the same cake recipe as you, how unreasonable!"

It sounds lovely.. I would ask for the recipe but at this point I think it might be guarded by three trolls and a curse.

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LilaJude · 15/02/2019 06:09

I don’t think it’s that weird since everyone liked it the first time. I think it probably just seems weird to you because its coloured by your perception of her.

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Cobblersandhogwash · 15/02/2019 06:09

Nope. It's weird to bring in same cake.

Does she normally bring in cakes?

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SummersB · 15/02/2019 06:12

I am not precious about my recipes at all and have sat and printed loads of my cake recipes for my colleagues in the past.
To be fair though, I do have an issue with this particular colleague and I know the reason she wanted the recipe is because she can’t stand anybody getting praised for anything and will do her best to prove that she is better if they do. She really is very hard work. So yeah, it probably is just me Grin
FWIW - It’s a recipe by James Morton, it’s absolutely lovely and I highly recommend it.

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SummersB · 15/02/2019 06:13

No she never normally brings in homemade cakes.

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burrobirra · 15/02/2019 06:14

I would ask for the recipe but at this point I think it might be guarded by three trolls and a curse.

😂😂😂

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LilaJude · 15/02/2019 06:14

She does sound like a pain in the arse tbf

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RainbowWaffles · 15/02/2019 06:15

It’s nice that you made a cake and took it into work for your colleagues. Everything else in your post makes you sound rather unpleasant and somewhat immature. She obviously liked the cake as she asked you for the recipe so no great surprise that she was going to make it too. How long should she have waited before attempting the recipe? Maybe she didn’t want to eat all the cake herself so just brought it into work. Maybe she should have just thrown it away? You took cake into work so you obviously don’t think taking it in is an odd thing to do.

I might have found it weird if she did it without saying anything to me and asking me for the recipe or acknowledging in any way she was making exactly the same cake. How you describe it sounds pretty normal though.

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PodgeBod · 15/02/2019 06:17

I don't think it's that weird- In fact I think it's a bit of a compliment. I would be pleased it had not turned out as well, though Grin

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ContessaIsOnADietDammit · 15/02/2019 06:19

I would find it a bit weird given the short timeframe, yes. If it had been a month later, not so much!

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MaybeitsMaybelline · 15/02/2019 06:24

It’s weird she brought it in when she made such a bad job of it!

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Ragnarthe · 15/02/2019 06:26

Not weird

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OutComeTheWolves · 15/02/2019 06:30

I think it's weird, but I used to work with someone who tried to initiate a weekly baking competition with a colleague who made lovely cakes, trying to make the rest of us to vote each week. It was awkward as fuck for those of us who just wanted to eat cake in peace so I'm no strange to cake based acts of passive aggression in the workplace.

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Fairylea · 15/02/2019 06:37

I don’t find it weird. It sounds like you really, really hate her though!

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SovietKitsch · 15/02/2019 06:39

I’m not usually precious about my recipes

In what way are they your recipes? You didn’t write them. How on earth could you be precious about something which is freely available to anyone? We’re not taking about your grandma’s secret cookie recipe here...Confused

This whole thing is bloody weird...

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CasperGutman · 15/02/2019 06:42

She liked the cake and wanted to try making it herself. Maybe she doesn't have a lot to occupy her time, and maybe she doesn't have anyone at home to share cake with. Throwing away a whole cake, even a suboptimal one, would be a massive waste.

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Sophisticatedsarcasm · 15/02/2019 06:44

It sounds like she’s one of those that has to try and beat everyone. You do something ut she has to do it better, it’s really common. I’m usually the baker in my work, bringing in cupcakes etc for certain events, we also have a trainee baker who used to pop in cakes every now and then, one thing she won’t do is cupcakes as she said mine are so much better than hers and I said her other cakes are better. So she brings all other cakes and I do the cupcakes. At work she has the mentality to try to be better and it drives me nuts but we always agree about the cakes. I told her she could take over doing the cupcakes and she said no.... I’ve got to make them 😂😂

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BalloonSlayer · 15/02/2019 06:44

Well maybe people were saying "Cor lovely! I wish there was some more of that" and she thought it would be nice if she made the next one.

I would be pretty upset if I had brought a cake into work and people were sniggering that it was dry etc.

I know you've said she's not a nice person but you don't come over so great yourself.

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gamerwidow · 15/02/2019 06:47

I think this whole issue is coloured by the fact you don’t like her. That’s fair enough we don’t have to like everyone but if you happily share the recipe with other co workers you should have been the better person and shared it with her. Anything else makes you look like the bad guy and could be construed as bullying.
It’s hard I have someone I work with that I think is a massive twat but I’m always making the extra effort to make sure I don’t let it show and that everything I do is fair rather than treating them less favourably than others because I don’t like them.

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hiddeneverything · 15/02/2019 06:50

Yes it's weird of her, especially in the circumstances you describe x

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