Would you eat cake baked by a colleague?

[Seniorschoolmum]

Recently someone had a significant birthday, and two colleagues brought in home made cakes. Both beautifully decorated.

Yet a couple of people declined a slice, saying they never eat home cooked anything because they can’t be sure what the food hygiene was like.
I was a bit stunned. Am I just slow on the uptake or is that normal now?
I “get” not eating cake if you’re on a diet or just don’t like cake.

Don't think I have ever been sick from eating someone else's cake.

DS(14) is running a baking session with his Beaver pack in a few weeks time. After reading this thread, I am assuming all the parents will be wearing hazmat suits at pick up, what with a child supervising other children with baking

Same as a previous poster, I had never heard of this before MN. Find it weird. Just like not having a loo brush💩

I don't think you should be forced to eat cake at work if you don't want it, but there are kinder and more polite ways to decline than this!

I once took apples from my garden to work. I was surprised when one person said they wouldn't eat apples from a garden because they might have worms in, and one from a supermarket never would. I was a bit surprised and said I thought the advantage of home grown fruit was that it wasn't covered in toxic chemicals...

I have cats and they do jump on my surfaces, but I am aware this is an issue. I never prepare anything directly on the surface, always use a chopping board and I always spray with dettol before starting to prepare food, especially when preparing for others. I wash my hands, slightly obsessively and shut the kitchen door to keep the cats out while food prep is happening or while food is out on the surface.

I love home made cake and eat any that's on offer! 😁

I wouldn’t, because I don’t like cake or sweets. No issues with other people’s hygiene. People refusing home cooked food because of hygiene issues actually sound weird and probably dirty themselves.

I work in a university and just about the only excitement we have is cake days! We have staff and students from all over the world who make fantastic cakes (the Germans are all brilliant bakers). I’ll eat anything, often there is random cake in the kitchen and I eat it without a second thought.

On the subject of men washing their hands, I work in an engineering department, there are something like five men for every woman working there. The soap dispenser in the ladies’ toilet is refilled three times as often as the men’s, according to the cleaner.

There are LOTS of people on MM like this. I’m not one of them.

No, it since one oh so hilariously told us all (after we’d eaten it) that she’d found her cat asleep on top of it as it cooled off on the kitchen side.
But it was covered in parchment paper, so that was fine.
🤢🤢🤢🤢

There is a normalisation if germ phobias on MN which doesn’t reflect real life as I know it. All the stuff about toilets and laundry is another facet of this.

Yes. My colleague makes lovely WW cakes. 😀

Of course I'd eat it. A lot of people are unbelievably pathetic about germs and excessive cleanliness. Bacteria are a normal and ubiquitous part of our surroundings. Our system can deal with them and needs to be exposed to them. Besides, a) how many people actually get ill from eating cake and b) do people really think that cake from cafés is so much more reliable in terms of hygiene?

People with actual OCD aren't being pathetic.

I’m on a permanent diet and always take a small slice and “ save it for and later” eat a bit bin the rest

Yay! Food waste! That's just as disrespectful to the baker as saying you think they are manky. Just refuse with whatever reason you want, and leave it to be eaten by someone else with fewer hangups.

Why do you imagine people with hygiene concerns about other people are “probably dirty themselves”, NannyRed?! What a fantastic piece of twisted logic.

As long as I knew the people that had made them were clean but that's because I'm immunosuppressed and I have ulcerative colitis and what might cause a slight upset stomach to someone else could land me in hospital.

But I would never judge someone saying no to eating the cake.

This brings back memories of the weekly charity cake sales at school, and all the delighted exclamations of children who had helped make the cup cakes and were alternating between picking their noses and poking the cakes - bleuch.

"Your colleagues could have said, 'Thank you, I'll save it for later' and then tactfully disposed of their slice of cake when said colleague wasn't around. "

You mean they should throw it away?!
That's much worse. If they say no, someone else can have a second slice.

I'd eat it unless it was a colleague who I thought had bad personal hygiene etc.

I've taken food into work and everyone has tucked in. Once I took in food prepared by my mum and no one had an issue with it.

Would depend on who made it, if it was someone with poor hygiene, dirty home etc I would say I was on diet. I never ever eat the cakes or biscuits my son brings home from nursery as they always seem to have a grey tinge to them

If they don’t have ocd that’s rude! I am selective and have been known to not eat something from
Someone whose house and kitchen is gross and who has poor hygiene but if someone I worked with made one, then I would eat it. I think if someone has gone to the effort to decorate chances are they went to the effort of washing their hands! Group baking at school however...

My company has potlucks three or four times a year and people bring in the most wonderful food. It would never occur to me to not try it.

Although I can understand that line of thinking, to state that one is refusing to eat based on perceived home hygiene standards is incredibly rude. There are nicer ways to decline. I can think of about 10.

My old dept head at work used to always, always decline my home baked stuff. I am a decent cook. She wasn't concerned about hygiene, she was just a nasty bitch who would use any tiny means necessary to let me know what she thought of me.

Her loss. More for me.

I actually think it's quite brave they told the truth about this....

I have OCD so would decline food offered to me but would say I wasn't hungry or that I am healthy eating. I wouldn't be so honest as to decline due to doubting the hygiene of the cake maker. I used to hate it when food was offered out then somebody would delve in and put dirty hands on everything. My BIL baked a cake for my DH which was thoughful but was spoilt when he cut it up having just come in from having a cigarette. Gross 😝