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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to not pay for the slice of cake?

233 replies

bananafish · 03/12/2015 18:13

This isn't a big deal, really, but I'm somewhat bemused, so here goes.

So, we had a bake sale at work to raise money for a local charity before Christmas.

I baked a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. New recipe, newish oven. It looked good when I put it out, but I was a wee bit nervous it might taste horrible, so I cut a small slice to test it.

The woman who organised the bake sale smiled at me and said: "That will be £1.50, please."

I smiled back and said nothing, as I assumed she was joking. She wasn't; she asked for the money again.

I said that I was just making sure it was OK and I didn't think I needed to pay for the slice of cake? She tutted that it was "bad form", and walked away with her nose in the air.

I appreciate we were raising funds but that's a bit weird, isn't it? Or should I have coughed up?

OP posts:
CarShare · 03/12/2015 18:38

Christ- what's the world coming to when people are made to feel bad for doing something good for charity. The women sounds ridiculous.

ExasperatedAlmostAlways · 03/12/2015 18:38

I'm not saying that's what I think, just what she may of thought.

catfordbetty · 03/12/2015 18:40

Perhaps she was worried that you would 'test' all of the cakes!

DoraDymant · 03/12/2015 18:40

I have never heard of the need to test a cake though. So your explanation sounds a bit disingenuous. I think you just thought it was fair enough to take a slice because you made it. Understandable, but bad form. Wink

YoureAllABunchOfBastards · 03/12/2015 18:40

Should have given her a tenner and then punched the cake

Daisysbear · 03/12/2015 18:40

Women like her often do more harm than good. She probably pissed off other people as well with her bossy manner and people will be reluctant to bother getting involved with any more of her charity ventures.

If I organised something like that I'd just be grateful that people got involved and donated. I certainly wouldn't be going around tutting and finger wagging because someone tested a bit of their cake.

Daisysbear · 03/12/2015 18:41

have never heard of the need to test a cake though.

Do you do any baking? I always test a bit of my cakes before giving them to someone.

Fairiesarereal · 03/12/2015 18:43

You essentially ate what someone else could of ate and paid for, therefore the charity was deprived of that money.

But if she hadn't have baked the cake in the first place, the charity would receive even less.

PuppyMonkey · 03/12/2015 18:43

I'm pmsl at the thought of you punching a cake now, god this thread is the best Grin

Potterwolfie · 03/12/2015 18:44

How could she taste it at home? Then a piece would be missing and it would look weird to give a half eaten cake to a bake sale. I think you did entirely the right thing.

I'd love to hear the legal definition of when a donated cake is no longer the property of the person who donated it. . .

PrivatePike · 03/12/2015 18:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Greengardenpixie · 03/12/2015 18:47

Women like her often do more harm than good. She probably pissed off other people as well with her bossy manner and people will be reluctant to bother getting involved with any more of her charity ventures.

Completely agree.

Original poster
bananafish · 03/12/2015 18:48

I really did want to check it tasted OK before I offered it up for sale. I don't think that's strange. And, it was only a small slice. I didn't cut half the cake!

I happily bought a slice of the other cakes. And very good they were, too.

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 03/12/2015 18:48

If baking a new recipe, I practice by baking a prototype which DP and I scoff all to ourselves.

But I think the OP should have donated some cash whether it was for her cake or someone elses. Bake sale woman was a bit jobsworth though.

£1.50 is OK for a nice slice of homemade cake for charity, although we asked for a pound a slice at our MacMillan coffee morning and people still moaned.

And we had the diet bores moaning about calories and offering non cake alternatives that promoted her home party selling shit business

APlaceOnTheCouch · 03/12/2015 18:50

If you try it at home, you then cut the cake into slices and re-arrange them on the plate so no-one can see a bit is missing. I would find it odd if someone 'taste tested' their own cake at a charity bake sale. On the plus side at least the woman asked you to pay rather than just gossiping with everyone about how you stole a slice of cake although she probably did that after you refused to pay Grin

StarkyTheDirewolf · 03/12/2015 18:50

I frequently bake for my dms church things, the ladies always ask if I've tried it/do I want to try it?

Yanbu and I'd probably have laughed. But I'm just getting images of Carson from Downton bellowing "bad form, Lady Mary!" whilst giving a left hook to a lemon drizzle!

Fairiesarereal · 03/12/2015 18:59

Yanbu and I'd probably have laughed. But I'm just getting images of Carson from Downton bellowing "bad form, Lady Mary!" whilst giving a left hook to a lemon drizzle!

Xmas Grin
Puzzledandpissedoff · 03/12/2015 18:59

Did she know that you were the person who actually made the cake?

I'm just wondering ... when you said you "wanted to test it/make sure it's okay" could she have thought you were another customer, who for some reason thought she could try before buying??

chillycurtains · 03/12/2015 19:01

I think you should have paid the £1.50. It was a bit of a weird thing for you to do when it was set out at the sale. For cake sales I often make tray bake, square type cakes like flapjack, fridge cake so that I can cut a slice of for testing unnoticed...but I do this at home. Wink

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 03/12/2015 19:07

so if they charge £1.50 that is potentially £12 -18 per cake depending on how big the slice Shock

CainInThePunting · 03/12/2015 19:08

Stealing and bad form? What A Load of Twaddle.

How silly and petty to demand a donation from the person who is donating the whole cake.

Good grief.

Sharoncatastrophe · 03/12/2015 19:09

This kind of crap is why I won't do things for charity. I would've been fuming

OneHandFlapping · 03/12/2015 19:09

DH always used to buy my cakes from the cake sale, because the kids wanted them. I could just have donated £5 to the school and left the cake at home.

Sharoncatastrophe · 03/12/2015 19:12

"Should have given her a tenner and then punched the cake"

I am CRYING at this. Amazing

Stillwishihadabs · 03/12/2015 19:15

YABU I "bought" 2 of the cakes I made for the church Xmas fayre on Saturday. Partly to check I wasn't poisoning anyone.