To be eating a bowl of chocolate butter icing!?

[Samoyedy]

I really fancied some butter icing so I made some, had some Coco powder too so threw that in. Now I'm sitting here eating it out of the bowl and I can almost feel my arteries clogging up. I'm just eating spoonfuls of butter FFS! Does anyone else do this!? It must be SO bad for you

[UmbongoUnchained]

Yanbu. I ate a jar of peanut butter in bed last night with a spoon.

[EssentialHummus]

This is why I stop myself learning how to make sugar icing - I'd absolutely not be able to resist scoffing it minus cake. As it stands the closest cupcakes to me are in a Tesco down a long, busy road, but even so I sometimes buy a pack of cupcakes and eat the icing only .

[BarbaraofSeville]

I would try to avoid doing this but never say never. I have eaten things like chocolate chips, dried fruit, baking chocolate, cake decorations from the baking cupboard to satisfy sweet cravings when there's nothing else in the house, usually because I've eaten it already. Or finished off a tin of condensed milk with a spoon when I only needed half for a particular recipe.

My recent discovery is the deliciousness that it ricotta or mascapone cheese. I can eat that stuff by the tub and it is surprisingly filling. I may have eaten tubs of the stuff as a meal/snack and had to replace the tub to make whatever meal it was intended for. And ricotta at least is only about 300-350 calories per tub, so quite low calorie for an entire meal.

[EssentialHummus]

Helpfully I'm now getting an ad for "Cupcake Day" to the right of this thread

[AskingForAPal]

When I was a teenager I used to do this quite often in the summer holidays

It was SO GOOD. But I was ashamed.

[onemouseplace]

I may have done this in the past

I am also unable to have a jar of Nutella in the house otherwise it will disappear.

[samlamb]

YANBU.Its been known for me to eat a whole tub of Betty Crocker vanilla butter icing.. with my finger.

You are not alone.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties sadly it has never put me off!

[seafoodeatit]

YANBU. If I could eat butter straight out the fridge I would, buttercream icing just makes it all the more amazing and delicious.

[FutureGadgetsLab]

I've done this before.

[TheFuckersBitingMe]

I'm not keen on butter but DS1 (10) likes to sneak a slice of it every now and then. In restaurants and on planes he'll happily steal our mini butters to eat like sweets. Fortunately it's a rarity he does it, and he's pretty healthy and fit the rest of the time. It's an odd thing to crave, though. Very odd.

[FirstWeTakeManhattan]

No, not for me. Way too sickly.

[FutureGadgetsLab]

That's disgusting. It genuinely would never occur to me to ... what, create icing just to eat from a bowl? Butter and cocoa powder? On a spoon?

And then we get threads like "I think size 8 people must all be anorexic" and "do you eat three meals a day? How is this possible?" while posters brag about eating butter.

It's butter and icing sugar and coco.

Also what the hell is your problem? Why so aggressive? Eating a bowl of icing once isn't going to make you fat. I've done this and I'm an 8-10. Sorry to ruin your I hate fat people rant.

[TheFuckersBitingMe]

If we're bragging about intake I once ate three entire tubes of Pringles to myself inside an hour. And I wasn't even sorry. I love Pringles so much I genuinely can't have them in the house because it's like crack for mothers. I'm nowhere near overweight. I hardly think an afternoon pig out once in a while is going to make you obese.

[StealthPolarBear]

Tbh as a previously very fat and now slightly overweight person myself it's comments like that that did help to re normalise eating for me. It's not normal. It's not ok. That's not to say it must never be done but that sort of commebt every now and then was an eye opener for me.

[storynanny]

I've done this lots of times! I often make a cake simply to scrape the bowl. I am more controlled eating a little bit of buttercream than if I had access to a jar of Lotus biscuit spread. I daren't have a jar of that in the house.
I remember reading once that to overcome a raging sweet tooth moment, make up a bit of super sweet icing and eat a spoonful as it will be less calories than a bar of chocolate etc. Only one spoonful though.

[DoinItFine]

As long as you don't get out an eating utensil, it doesn't count.

What about a spatula?

Does that count?

StealthPolar - I know what you mean about those reproving comments being a bit useful.

[FutureGadgetsLab]

How are comments bashing people useful at all? Stuff like that really pisses me off.

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

DS birthday cake was icing central :)

Vanilla butter cream on top, chocolate butter cream on sides. Alternate creams in the layers.

All to alleviate the play doh sugar icing that covered the whole lot in swathes - that stuff may look good but it's not nice to eat!

And so, I had two bowls of buttercream icing to lick out, as I decorated, yay! And when the cake had been cut it was very efficient as DS liked the cake and some of the sugar craft decorations, I liked the buttercream and a friend liked the slices of fondant icing I'd cut away from the buttercream. Perfecto

I'm glad birthdays only come once a year as it was deliciously terrible for all of us, but I don't feel ashamed or disgusting for enjoying it all. I think there's a difference between encouraging unhealthy eating patterns, and reviling people with eating problems, who are hurting themselves enough already.

Hatred and shaming are not effective behavior change tools. Education and positive reinforcement does work though.

[StealthPolarBear]

Because people conspire, eating a while tub of ice cream, a kilo of chocolate or whatever. I deluded myself and found some plain talking helpful. Only speaking on behalf f myself.

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

Spatulas are fair game :)

They feel great when you swoop them around the curves or the bowl, and flex the plastic as you part the tiniest last smears from the Pyrex.

Gosh, should I be worried that the eating is almost secondary to the whole spatula experience?!

[StealthPolarBear]

My father in law was once offered a second chocolate when u was sixteen stone.
He said "no thabks I don't want one"
Then he thought for a sec and said "well of course I do, I think we all do but it's not a good idea is it"

This was not in the slightest aimed at me, but it made me realise that people artificially suppress the desire toeat. And that's called willpower/disciple. I was greedy before and knew no different

[BabyGanoush]

Icing is nice, but only real buttercream or creamcheese based ones. Betty Crocker tastes awful, bordering on the inedible.

Making a whole bowl of icing to eat with a spoon is certainly not normal....

That is why I make slightly too much icing for our weekly bake sale and have to have a spoon or two left over

[RattieOfCatan]

I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a common occurrence in my house. I love a bit of chocolate butter icing

[ChicRock]

I honestly feel quite queasy at the thought of it. It would not occur to me to do this at all.

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

Oh yes Stealth I totally agree and think the FiL example is really really good - that's about normalizing positive choices and showing self care which is something that tends to be so private that you don't know you can't do it until it's bloody obvious!

Societies tendency towards normalizing gluttony and creating no-win situations where self control is tested to the limit creates a toxic background for anyone to make good food choices. And it needs to change.

But I also think fat-hatred and shaming is despicable, and increasingly accepted in culture.

Being straight talking is often confused with a tacit permission to be cruel and unpleasant to people who cannot hide their failings, as its there wobbling around for all to see (yes, that would be personal experience talking there!).

More modeling of good strategies, and positive feedback loops to help instill new habits, and more straight talking to help people see they have choices.

But please I'd love our society to make the shaming and hatred as socially unacceptable as the fat itself. I've love less of the hatred, class stereotyping, and the 'otherness', that just drives eating underground and increases the self hatred and need for comfort... Which are all triggers for more unhealthy eating.

Oops, sermon to congregation of mumsnetters who don't particular need it now over! Ahem!