Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
Jw35 · 04/12/2015 09:17

It's odd to cut a slice out of a round cake and taste it?

YANBU though, you baked it ffs!

villainousbroodmare · 04/12/2015 09:26

I think the sample cupcake is the way to go, but failing that, it's better to turn up with the cake in pristine condition and take the tasting slice as it's being sliced for sale. Which I think is what happened.

Daisysbear · 04/12/2015 09:28

This thread has me laughing out loud now.

Honestly, the OP was in the process of handing over her cake, stopped for a second and cut a small piece to make sure it was okay.

She wasn't 'stealing', demonstrating 'bad form' or 'bad manners' or being 'weird'.

Jeeze!

Ohbehave1 · 04/12/2015 09:30

I can't believe people are talking "from a legal point of view". It just goes to prove how far up their arses can be!

The person went to all the effort to buy the ingredients, took the time to cook the cake using their gas or electricity and then some jumped up person decides they are going to make an issue out of nothing.

Someone was making a mountain out of nothing methinks.

PrimalLass · 04/12/2015 09:39

Isn't it, PrimalLass? I understood the cake was out on the stall when she took a slice; if it wasn't I've been seriously misled (and so have most of the posters on the thread).

The OP said:
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.

Which, to me, sounds like she was putting the cake out to display it on the stall and cut a tiny piece. So not misled - misread.

Preciousxbane · 04/12/2015 09:47

But Wonky if everyone was reasonable like you MN wouldn't exist. I have always just broken off about a teaspoon of cake to test it before subjecting anyone else to it but I'm a bad baker who knows her limits.

Hoppinggreen · 04/12/2015 09:54

To me once it's been handed over it's not yours.
What if I dropped off my donation and then wandered over to the stall a bit later and asked for a slice of cake but refused to pay since I had made it?
Surprised the woman asked for the money ( twice) but don't think you should have cut and eaten a slice, when you donate something it's not your any more.

Brioche201 · 04/12/2015 09:58

The charity don't make money from people baking cakes, only people paying for them.

josephwrightofderby · 04/12/2015 09:58

I am forced to conclude that there is a parallel universe of Mumsnet bonkersness that runs on very different rails to my world. Otherwise I think I would go mad with paranoia that every tiny little gesture was being scrutinized and judged.

8 pages on a slice of cake. Wow.

Daisysbear · 04/12/2015 10:02

To me once it's been handed over it's not yours.

To me, if you take a small slice out of a cake you have baked and are willing to allow to be sold for charity, who gives a shit?

zen1 · 04/12/2015 10:31

I really can't see how the OP was being U in any way. She donated her time and money (and gas/electricity) to make the cake, then sampled a small slice as she was putting it out to check it tasted ok.

The charity don't make money from baking cakes, only people paying for them

If OP hadn't made the cake in the first place, the charity wouldn't have had the opportunity to make any money

futureme · 04/12/2015 10:32

At the school cake sales if everyone who brought cakes in ate one of their own to "taste it" then they wouldn't make any money as noone would be buying them!

It does feel like a parallel universe. If you give cakes over to a sale you don't go up and then just take some because you fancy it!

Daisysbear · 04/12/2015 10:36

"If you give cakes over to a sale you don't go up and then just take some because you fancy it!"

But she didn't. As she was handing it over she cut a small piece to check it.
She didn't walk up to the stall as the sale was in full flow and casually cut herself a slice and walk off.

futureme · 04/12/2015 10:38

What on earth needs "checking" in a cake?! Surely you slice a bit off the bottom if you genuinely want to check it. It's just euphemism for "haven't made this before and want to see what it tastes like" surely?

futureme · 04/12/2015 10:39

I actually think if everyone at a cake sale donated the cost of ingredients it would save a lot of faff. But I'd laso be happy to pay 20/50 quid whatever at the beginning of the year and skip all the sale faff....

Floggingmolly · 04/12/2015 10:41

I'm just curious as to what op planned to do if it tasted rank... Snatch it back?

Daisysbear · 04/12/2015 10:45

What on earth needs "checking" in a cake?!

Is it cooked properly through
Is it too dry
Has the fruit sunk to the bottom

etc etc

There's nothing unusual about a baker cutting a small piece of a cake they've made to check it tastes alright. With savoury cooking you can usually taste as you go along, or as soon as it comes out of the oven. With cakes you have to wait for them to cool down.

QuintShhhhhh · 04/12/2015 12:50

All that can, and should, be checked prior to putting the icing on, and offering it to a bake sale!

All the checking and discrete tasting can be done, as somebody else has said, by cutting a tiny slither and taste prior to putting the icing/cream/decoration on.

QuintShhhhhh · 04/12/2015 12:57

I would also rather pay my way out.

I do however love to taste GOOD homebaking.

But the type of fundraising we have over here, I could definitely do without.

Op, just be glad you are not instructed to pay up front for 10 sacks of 45 rolls of toilet paper, that you are expected to flog to family and friends, at marked up "charity" prices! Angry
Not to mention advent calendars, lipgloss, kindling wood, merino undies, and boxes with sweets, caramels and cakes, like we have to do for our childrens sports clubs.... Geezzzzz Compared to getting a box of 50 lipglosses to sell, I rather bake. Or pay myself free.

This Sunday, I am meant to go from house to house and collect bottles for recycling (as here you get 20p a bottle when you take them back to the collection point)

RamblingRedRose · 04/12/2015 13:39

josephwrightofderby Fri 04-Dec-15 09:58:32

8 pages on a slice of cake. Wow.

Grin Mumsnetters really do love to debate the finer point of ettiquette.

DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease · 04/12/2015 14:26

Yanbu

You were taste testing a slice of cake before subjecting the public to it. I agree with those who said that it is attitudes like those of the £1.50 demander that put people off donating time/skills etc to charity.

Bettercallsaul1 · 04/12/2015 20:24

Oh, I love a cake thread! Hasn't been one for ages. Grin

ScrambledEggAndToast · 05/12/2015 22:43

You donated it to be sold so YABU. Your chance to taste for free passed as soon as you gave it to them. Plus, more importantly, it does make you look a bit mean not even giving a little bit to the collection. Although I agree with some posters that £1.50 is a lot at a charity bake sale. I've run one before and it's been 50p-£1 per slice/cupcake.

somepeopledontknowthat · 05/12/2015 22:52

She was being a twat.

BUT - what would you have done if if wasn't any good? Hidden it?

PamBagnallsGotACollage · 05/12/2015 23:28

YANBU.

Seriously, YANBU.

Yeah , you could have tasted it at home but you didn't. Checking it when you got there was the next best thing.

Would have been worse to put a shitty cake out and let people fall prey to buying something that tasted like a well used PE sock.

'But it was for charity. I'd pay £10 to eat someone's stinky old PE sock, let alone £1.50. The OP is a heartless scumbag.'