Cake-gate

[8Wina4]

I work in an office environment, in a team of around 20. Before the Easter weekend, I was chatting in the staff room on a break about how I've recently really got into baking, and one of my colleagues jokingly said that she wouldn't mind if I bought some cake to work for her to try. I promised I'd bring some home made cakes in after Easter.

Fast forward to today. I take in four different homemade cakes. I also took in some little vegan cake bites from Tesco, as we have 2 vegans in the office and I wanted them to be able to eat something nice too (everything I baked had flour/eggs in)

One of the vegans approached me at lunch, and told me that she was really disappointed that I hadn't made the effort to home bake anything vegan, and that I had promised homemade cakes, so I should have provided that for everyone. She said she didn't like the vegan cakes I'd bought from Tesco, and that she was fed up with being left out of team lunches/treats.

I was a bit taken aback, so apologised. But the more I think about it, the more I think she was actually the unreasonable one...

Thoughts?

Rude cow.

Come on people. This thread is about a rude individual who happens to be vegan. It could easily be someone with a different criteria - rude is rude.

Please don't bash us vegans.

"I’m not. Vegans are just as likely to be arseholes as non vegans. I just don’t believe that they are queuing up to be arseholes about being vegan. Unlike the non vegan posters on this thread who are indeed queuing up to vegan bash. Not this individual arsehole vegan at the OP’s work bash. Vegans in general bash."

People have the right to their opinions of others based on their own experiences. So, if that means that some people have experienced preachy/entitled vegans or pushy meat eaters then so be it. Your experiences may be entirely different so you will have very different opinions of those people. It comes across slightly that ypu think it's ok for vegans to make comments about meat eaters but non-vegans are not allowed to comment about annoying vegans they have experienced. You say also that nobody is questioning that this woman was rude but I believe you were one of the ones suggesting the OP was unkind to not make the vegan a cake just for her and then you suggested recipes she should/could try, rewarding this rude person for her disgusting behaviour.

Awww office baking isn't Great British Baking- we don't want to be experimental with twenty critical colleagues. I'm veggie so I make veggie stuff for office team lunches etc and my limited repertoire doesn't have a vegan option. Equally I understand that there will be lots of meat based choices I wouldn't chose.

I've not met an arsey vegan- they've all be sweeties. I think she's just a one off.

Can't believe that there are a few people suggesting one vegan cake out of four wouldn't have been that hard

Agree. I cook and bake a LOT so I have already got a lot of standard ingredients around the kitchen. But to bake vegan products requires alternatives to be purchased (some of which are expensive) and it pushes up the overall cost. It is simply not fair to expect and demand others to cover that cost.

“I believe you were one of the ones suggesting the OP was unkind to not make the vegan a cake just for her and then you suggested recipes she should/could try, rewarding this rude person for her disgusting behaviour.”

No. I said that this person was unforgivably rude. But I then said that if you were going to make 4 cakes for a gathering then it would not be hard to have made one of them that catered for the office vegans. And then everyone piled on with the “vegan cakes are shit” bollocks so I posted a recipe that isn’t. No suggestion that it ought to be made to reward rude woman!

I

Look her in the eye and ask her just one question:

'what have you done for me lately?'

I can’t believe how many people are falling over themselves to offer up vegan cake recipes. Maybe I’m missing something, bu you don’t reward rudeness. The OP did think of the vegans. Cake making is time consuming and expensive.

FFS! PMSL at all these suggestions and recipes for the OP to make a fucking vegan cake. She's not running a catering company or bakery! She brought in some cakes as a little favour.

'Oh, unkind!' Waaa. What about gluten free and dairy free people, people who are doing Slimming World and can't eat cake (OP needs to bring in fruit for them), what about people who don't like chocolate. OMG! So unkind.

Vegans are just as likely to be arseholes as non vegans.

That has reminded me of this from Jingo.....

"Be generous, Sir Samuel. Truly treat all men equally. Allow Klatchians the right to be scheming bastards, hmm?"

Substitute vegans for Klatchians and arseholes for scheming bastards and you're there

I’m not a vegan but have been in the past. I wouldn’t have confronted you about it but likely would have been disappointed too.

You made four cakes and I do think at least one of those could have been vegan. A simple Google search leads to hundreds of easy vegan recipes. It didn’t have to be a different vegan cake specifically for those two people, non vegans can enjoy it too...

It was nice you still considered them with the Tesco ones but it isn’t the same as baking one.

“Maybe I’m missing something, bu you don’t reward rudeness.“

Yes you are missing something. The recipes are in response to the posts saying that vegan cakes are shit, full of bizarre ingredients and difficult to make. No suggestion that the OP should be making one for Rude Woman.

I haven't read the full thread so don't know if this came up amongst the apparent vegan bashing I gather has gone on, but that woman was a choosing beggar. She was getting something for nothing and it wasn't good enough for her.

Beggars can't be choosers, except they can! Reddit has a whole sub reddit dedicated to these types of stories and encounters! Your story would fit in well there, OP!

Here it is: Choosing Beggars

Loving (please use sarcasm button to read that) some of the respopnses from entitled vegans on here! Why the fuck should we all learn to cater for vegans when we normally cater for our omnivorous families?

I'm diabetic and ccan't eat anything provided at most shared lunches and bake sales. I've learned to live with it and I don't expect the world to revolve round my needs, even though I didn't choose my condition.

Everyone agrees that the woman was the worst sort of rude arsehole.

On a separate Issue, If you were making cakes for a group, and that group included my dp and both my children who you know are sensitive to chocolate (not “nut allergy levels of worry” can’t touch chocolate, just “eating it often triggers migraine” sensitive) would you make 4 chocolate cakes?

Yes you are missing something. The recipes are in response to the posts saying that vegan cakes are shit, full of bizarre ingredients and difficult to make. No suggestion that the OP should be making one for Rude Woman.

I didn’t read it that way, but that makes sense.

“Loving (please use sarcasm button to read that) some of the respopnses from entitled vegans on here! ”

Ooh, this’ll be a good game - name the vegans!

Maybe this is unkind but I wouldn't keep that exchange to myself because I think its unacceptable. Don't let anyone else go to the effort to please the horrible woman.

You don't know whether she has been nasty to other people previously over their offerings as well...

OP please tell your vegan CF colleague that she won't be getting anything next time! What a cowbag!

Or maybe in preparation for next time, tell her in advance that you are baking and that she might want to bring in her own treats, seeing as how yours weren't good enough.

Whatever you do, DO NOT make a vegan cake!! Then her cheeky fuckerness will have won and will never stop.

I'm usually following the MN HFLC diet Way of Eating. It means I don't eat flour or sugar Guess what, if other people arrive with cakes, I can choose to say No

Doesn't stop me baking for others, because I get pleasure from the act of baking but nor does it mean that I expect others to accommodate my own restrictions I've also adapted a few flourless cake recipes (which use ground almonds), using erythritol instead of sugar for those occasions when I want to share a dessert - but there is an impact on the flavour.

The CF vegan should have been happy that the OP made the effort to remember that she was vegan and brought something in for her, even if it wasn't home-made (because vegan baking was not part of her repertoire) - as the other vegan was .

God Lord, I would actually bake the biggest and nicest and defo not vegan friendly cakes next week and make sure there isn't so much as crumb for her!!! What an ungrateful CF!

Actually, I rather like the idea of trying one of the tried-and-tested vegan cakes recommended on here for if the next time you take some cakes in, get everyone to eat it and rave about it and then tell CF vegan once it is finished that, "Sorry, didn't you realise it was vegan?" having told nice vegan in advance of course and made sure she got some

Bertrandandrussell your chocolate cake scenario isn’t a fair comparison. Making a different flavour is much easier than making a vegan cake, I’ve baked vegan cakes in the past, I wasn’t terribly impressed with my efforts and wouldn’t take them into work. I bake nice cakes and am regularly requested to bake cakes at work.

When I was pregnant I had diabetes, apart from moaning about missing my normal diet I wasn’t in the least offended when workmates continued bringing in cakes and chocs as usual, which I couldn’t eat, I really didn’t expect anyone to attempt a diabetes friendly cake just for my benefit.

Having a self imposed dietary restriction, you’ve got to understand you’ll miss out sometimes and on this occasion CF cakezilla actually was included and her dietary requirements catered to.

You don’t get to demand someone else use their own resources to cater to your life choices.

Maybe I accept it as I’m used to having dietary restrictions due to religious reasons and any time my dietary requirements are catered to it’s very kind if not it’s fine. It’s my choice to follow a restrictive diet.

I remember once going to the effort of making a dairy and gluten free cake for the office, since our office manager at the time had a lot of allergies and always missed out on baked goods that we brought in. She never complained, I just wanted to be nice and whilst she was hugely appreciative and everybody else was happy to try something different I’ve never forgotten one woman in the office who wouldn’t stop moaning that it tasted different and weird, the icing was odd, normal cake is better, yadda yadda yadda. All she achieved was to make herself look like a tit but it did reinforce that old saying - you can’t please everyone!

If your vegan colleague is that keen to have some home baking in the office then she’s welcome to crack on and bloody well bake something herself!

It doesn't matter whether it is hard to make. I don't like chocolate cake, but I would not complain if a colleague kept bringing in homemade chocolate cake. She is doing everyone a favour. It is basically a gift. You don't say to the gift giver, well I don't like that, so bring something different.

This ^ (though I love chocolate cake - for me it would be dried fruit). I have a colleague who loves to bake. there is NO WAY I would have expected her to go and get me something separate from a shop, as the OP so kindly did, on one of the days she brings in a cake I didn't like. I would just politely say 'no thanks' and crack on with my work. If someone did that, I would think them overwhelmingly kind, and wouldn't dream of criticising their choice.

I am no great baker, but am often called on to contribute cakes to fundraisers etc. At those times - when someone outside the family is going to be eating my cakes - I would only ever consider making a tried and tested 'standard' cake. People saying 'it wouldn't be hard to make a vegan cake' seem to be missing that point. OP has baked her favourite cakes, in her own time, at her own expense for pleasure. She is not a caterer.