To think this is a really fucking weird thing to do?

[SummersB]

Brought a cake into work the other day - Banana & Blueberry, it was bloody lovely!
One of my colleagues asked me where I had the recipe from and I told her the author. I’ve previously made this before and have shared the recipe with a few of my colleagues, but in the interest of full disclosure I had no intention of sharing it with this particular one because to be honest I can’t stand her (she is a higher banding - band 6 nursing staff - and due to a massive chip in her shoulder she makes junior staff’s working life a misery by being patronising and belittling at every opportunity and is therefore really unpleasant to work with).
Another colleague just told me that a few days after I had brought my cake in she came into work with exactly the same cake, obviously having google searched the recipe and attempted to recreate it. We had a bit of a laugh about it because apparently it was shit as she’d burnt it and managed to make it really dry. But am I right in thinking that’s a really odd thing to do? Who tastes a cake their workmate baked, goes home, looks the recipe up online and comes in two days later saying “ta-da, look, you know the cake you made the other day - well I could have made any other cake in the world but I’ve decided to look it up and make exactly the same one and bring in to work too”? Or is it just me?

Did anyone leave it out in the rain?!

Well I suppose you know her usual MO, so if you think it's competitive, perhaps it is: but from experience I'd just ignore. We had two competitive cake makers in a team at work. It all got rather ugly & we went back to me buying weekly team treat from the local Mall bakery, as my boss wisely deemed it "unfair the same two ladies are always treating us".

She actually sounds like a nice person who looks up to you and appreciates that you cooked and wanted to do the same for everyone in return!

Yet we are constantly told that Nurses don't have time to pee on shift and that the NHS is on its knees...

This shite is rife in wards with groups of bitchy women spending their days embroiled in petty squabbles.

I often take cake into work I've made myself. The results vary tbh.

Once I took in nut brittle which was literally just melted sugar and nuts.
They've never let me forget it.

People suggest recipes for me now

She's either trying to elevorife you or just trying to be kind and maybe laugh at herself by sharing her attempt. You should be flattered 😀

It's just cake, Marie Antoinette!

I think if you have problems with the behaviour of a colleague at work you deal with it through the proper channels. Getting in a huddle and tittering about cake is probably not one of the proper channels.

Maybe she senses she is not liked and tried to do something nice as in 'SummersB brings cake into work and she is liked, I'll do the same'. she may well have an attitude problem but sometimes people don't realise how they are coming across and a constructive conversation is generally more helpful than home baked goods at dawn.

Sounds like a toxic workplace. No one comes out of this slice of life very well.

This sort of thing is one reason I'm glad I work in the community

This just sounds so unbelievably petty!!

So she liked the cake.

Asked you for the recipe.

You refused to give it to her.

So she had to google for the recipe and made one because she liked it.

Then you and your colleagues laugh at her attempt.

And SHE is the one we are supoosed to find weird?

She was trying to out do you but she just showed herself up.

Lol haven't read rtft yet however I work with these types of nurses and the ones I work with are totally manipulative 2-faced c*ts and bullies. So, I may be biased but based on experience she's done it to try and make the point that you can't do something better than her....that maybe a projection but I doubt it

I really don’t think this is odd at all. Think of it as a compliment, you obviously made a delicious cake.

You are weird, what has this woman done to you?

Are you a Stepford wife type?

Classic catty, bitchy nurses. Just know that while you're having a laugh, the person on the receiving end goes home and cries to their family about the nasty culture of bullying at work and dreads the next shift.

Yeah, of course she was trying to prove she could do something better than the OP by burning the cake and then bringing it in on a day the OP wasn't even there to be humiliated by it.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Plus yeah, she could have left it a while!

Sounds like she is looking for approval. With people saying they liked your cake well maybe they would like hers too. From how you describe her are you sure she isn't just insecure. The bossy holier than thou nature is usually a sign of insecurity and wanting to be liked. Think of her cake as a compliment.

OP are you ok? You sound crazy

Very good! @gilchrist168

@Renster

I am SO glad somebody else was thinking along those lines!

But it took so long to make it.
And I just bet she'll never have that recipe again. Oh no.

Yes, that is odd. I would be weirded out by it.

Or is it just me?

Umm... from your OP yes it's just you.

It sounds like it's all in the back story. I think it's odd to not want to share a recipe with someone in the first place (unless perhaps it's a very old family recipe) but something you just looked up from Nigella or whatever you should just tell them the recipe.

I think bringing in the same cake isn't that odd. She liked it, people enjoyed it so she thought she'd make it too. Usually cake making for colleagues isn't a competitive sport so I wouldn't interpret it that way.

Obviously you know her and we don't so perhaps knowing her personality I'd think differently.