Is MIL's slice of cake a bit stingy? (Picture)

[HapsburgUrchin]

MIL is a lovely women really, but positively enjoys being frugal and detests any excess in all its forms.

She's baked us a lovely cake, but is determined for it to last for as long as possible. She is the master slice cutter and won't let anyone else near it.

AIBU to be a bit disappointed with the size of this slice?

(Everyone disappeared into the other room, so I was able to take this sneaky photo with handy scale provided by new pound coin!)

My GM grew up during the war but rationing sent her the other way; she is very generous with food and tells us the war is over and to have seconds/more/a big bit of whatever the treat is. She can't bear the idea of there not being an abundance of food.

You would just about get the flavour but never the taste of that miniscule morsel

That looks like a scrumptious, moist, lovingly made cake. I wish my mum, or my MIL were still alive, to go to the trouble of baking me such a lovely cake.

Does she regularly mistake you for one of the borrowers?

Looks like a French sized portion to me.

I like the new pound coins.

@ aggrieved

I actually think that's worth divorcing your Dh for. That is an insult to cake eaters. It's all very well being frugal, but seriously, never never ever over cake. I'm really sorry for you. The only advice I can give you is when you next go visiting, buy yourself a big scrumptious cake and eat it in the car before you go in to see MIL and her stingy inhuman slices.
Good luck, you are in my thoughts x

God's sake. It's a bloody cake. Mumsnet is full of bitchy moaners!!!!!

No Molly -tis more like Cake Complainers

Or Portion Protagonists

Just back from shopping and a market bakery stall had samples of cake on a plate for tasting. I took out a pound coin and some pieces were larger than Hapsburg's 'MIL slice' I could swear.

Have you misunderstood the whole thing, OP? Was MIL in fact inviting you to taste a bit before committing yourself to a normal slice?

One of the girls at work's MIL made a cake for the family, cut giant slices for 'the boys', gave herself a medium slice, then gave my friend a banana. Sarah was not on a diet, isn't overweight and loves cake.....

That is not a slice - it's a sliver! Even Scrooge would be horrified. I make cakes of all sorts and a regular cake is really not expensive to make, so it's not about saving pennies!

I would think that this is my mil only that she doesn't bake. When we go to my Mum's for dinner my Mum is the type who will give you a generous portion, then look for you to have seconds then look for you to take the rest of the dessert home with you.

My mil that's a different story. Whatever it is tart etc you will get a tiny wee slice. I keep thinking I would eat at least double that if I was at home and I am no pig.

Last Christmas sticks in my head as it was so bad. She produced a small Christmas pudding after dinner. Now if I was at home I would cut it in two between me and DH and have ice cream with it. This was between 5 adults she cut it up. I kept thinking there must be another one or something else, there wasn't, dessert was literally a spoonful. The best of it was I had bought them a lovely expensive hamper filled with lots of lovely goodies so it wasn't like there was nothing else.

When I first started going out with DH many years ago I used to question why she never made enough but now I know what to expect and just say nothing even though it is annoying.

On these threads I always trot out the time my DAunt had a dinner party and tried to stretch 5 salmon fillets between 7 adults and 2 toddlers. With one of those packs of tender stem broccoli on the side between us too.

She did, however,provide us with 5 bottles of champagne. We were too pissed to direct the taxi through the drive through at McDonalds which had been our original intention.

Now you see, in cases such as Secret describes, that's when it's really puzzling.

Surely anyone able to afford (financially) 5 bottles of Champagne, and have the generosity to share it with guests, isn't skimping due to budget constraints/ hatred of waste.

Even if they'd been given the Champagne as gifts (so no expenditure from them required), or had saved the bottles up from ages ago for celebrating with company, you'd think they'd extend the same attitude to food, too!!

Though I suppose if your DAunt had a tiny appetite, and maybe regarded very small single portions she routinely cooked for herself as the 'norm', it didn't occur to her that others ate more. Probably the toddlers, even!

Personally I think DAunt has quite a severe eating disorder. She obsessed with food and how much everyone eats, and I have memories growing up of her poking her daughter in the stomach when she ate (from aged 6 upwards) saying 'You're a fat little pig'. (My cousin is now anorexic). When we host her for dinner we never dish up, we put the dishes out on the table for people to help themselves because she becomes distraught when faced with what I would term a normal portion of food. I really worry about her to be honest, but she's in her 70s now and still the same.

Wow, you could probably shine a torch through that. YANBU

Alright of your one of the Sylvanian families 😉

“That looks like a scrumptious, moist, lovingly made cake. I wish my mum, or my MIL were still alive, to go to the trouble of baking me such a lovely cake”

Passive aggressive much?!

My mother would serve you a slice like that

When we used to go for Christmas Dinner she would measure the slices of roast beef and count the peas and carrots she would give you

The gravy was thinner than water and less tasty

My parents are wealthy, and very stingy

A sandwich at their house is one slice of bread with one sliver of wafer thin ham

My MIL, who was very slim, used to give us enormous slices of home made cake. Sadly she is now dead, a lovely woman.

Just say I had the taster it’s good now for the real slice lol I’m a cake maker and we suggest 1” by 2” for kids and 2”-2” for adults however they are three slabs tall.

When I had my last anorexia relapse I was still eating more cake than that!

Up thread, I said that that would be a normal sized slice for my MIL - old enough to remember rationing. We have just come back from a few days with my PiLs and the men was similarly austere at every meal:

Breakfast - a slice of toast and marge. Lots of hmm and haaaing when DD asked for jam, even though MIL males tonnes of it every summer.

Lunch - A roll with ham or cheese. Possibly if you ask nicely and are 1- growing or 2 - a man. If you are a woman who has just been for a run, it just one roll.

Evening meal - We had a quiche and a half between 6 of us, which was OKish, except slices were very much biased towards men and children again. 2 small spuds and soft broccoli. Pudding - 1/2 slice of lemon drizzle loaf or a corner yoghurt.

Bizarrely one night we had fish pie and loads of it! The broccoli and carrots were still super soft though.