Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Birthday cake rant

63 replies

Westside1 · 18/04/2021 22:31

I've seen a lot of adds for local bakery and something that appears to be getting common is siblings sharing birthday cakes. I think this is so mean of parents to do, it irritates me. I know they can't have parties now but surely for an event that just happens once a year they should have their own birthday cake. Rant over

OP posts:
Littlefish · 18/04/2021 22:34

My birthday and my sister's birthday are 4 days apart. We always had joint parties and a joint cake. However, this was in the 70s, so expectations weren't as high!

queenoffarts22 · 18/04/2021 22:34

What's wrong with sharing a cake? Maybe the family is on a budget and can't afford two or maybe they know it'll be too much and go to waste. Cakes go stale quickly.

Of all the parental sins, this is not one of them...

PurpleDaisies · 18/04/2021 22:37

My sister’s birthday is vey close to mine and we often had one cake. This was never anything I gave any thought to at all.

How does this actually affect you?

RunnerDuck2020 · 18/04/2021 22:39

If their birthdays are close together I don’t see why not - better than having two big cakes and either wasting loads or eating too much!

UhtredRagnarson · 18/04/2021 22:39

Have you seen the price of proper cakes??

LaurieFairyCake · 18/04/2021 22:42

God, I cannot imagine giving any assortment of fucks about this HmmGrin

YellowFish1647 · 18/04/2021 22:44

Seems fine to me. Not every family has money to spunk up the wall on bespoke cakes for each family member. Practical solution when two people have a birthday close together.

Newkitchen123 · 18/04/2021 22:44

It bothers you what other people do about birthday cakes?
I really have heard it all

HarrietHardy · 18/04/2021 22:46

ALERT THE CHURCH ELDERS

TulipSandwiches · 18/04/2021 22:48

I think that you should do what you want in your own family regarding birthday cakes.

Baublebox · 18/04/2021 22:50

My best friend and I have shared a birthday cake since we were 7. Out birthdays are two days apart and we still do it in our mid 30s.
I really don't see the issue.

TwoZeroTwoZero · 18/04/2021 22:50

What about twins who, obviously, share a birthday? It'd be cheaper and easier (and less wasteful) to just buy and eat one cake.

AccidentallyOnPurpose · 18/04/2021 22:52

I mean if one has a jan bday and the other an august one , then fair enough, that's rather mean. Unless they do it in Jan and August, which would be bonkers but pretty fair.

But do you know for sure the bdays aren't very close, a joint bday with a non sibling, multiples etc.?

One of my friends has two kids born on the same date, different years. Two separate Costco (the kids love them and so do we) would be such a waste in general, even more so now.

SquirtleSquad · 18/04/2021 22:56

@TwoZeroTwoZero

What about twins who, obviously, share a birthday? It'd be cheaper and easier (and less wasteful) to just buy and eat one cake.
I have twins! They wanted two cakes last year so we got them two (two cheap cakes instead of one nicer one) and this year they specifically requested no birthday cake because they remember being so sick of it last year having cake for breakfast and pudding for weeks out the freezer because we had so much of the sodding stuff left over. DH and I aren't big cake eaters. This year they asked for and got a treat box each instead with a brownie, cookies, rocky road and a cupcake in each, they were chuffed.
HopeClearwater · 18/04/2021 22:58

YABU for typing ‘rant over’.

CorianderBee · 18/04/2021 23:01

I mean the cake gets cut up and shared anyway so it's never really one persons cake. Unless your kids eat their whole birthday cake themselves.

It's fine, I shared with a school mate all the time.

Learningtofeminist · 18/04/2021 23:04

I’m one of 4 with birthdays all within 4 months (different years obviously). We all had one big joint birthday party - with one cake - when small. At the time I remember thinking it was great fun (I was shy and horribly bullied so there would have been 2 guests if it was just my party). Now that I’m organising birthday parties for myself I think my mum was a bloody genius.

rainbowthoughts · 18/04/2021 23:14

Sharing cake would work well here. We never get through a cake and a lot of it ends up wasted.

phodopus · 18/04/2021 23:15

I think if it's normal in the family and the children expect it, it's fine.

I'm a twin and we always had our own cakes though. Often we cut one cake first and left the other intact until the first was eaten so it didn't go dry (if it was a fondant iced one).

HectorHalloumi · 18/04/2021 23:15

@TwoZeroTwoZero

What about twins who, obviously, share a birthday? It'd be cheaper and easier (and less wasteful) to just buy and eat one cake.
I always get my twins a cake each Blush I didn't want them missing out just because they share the same Birthday. But I really wouldn't care judge what anyone else does.
HectorHalloumi · 18/04/2021 23:15

Plus I like cake Grin

mrscee · 18/04/2021 23:16

My twins shared a Colin caterpillar cake last week. I'm not buying 2 as we couldn't invite anyone else around due to Covid. In the past when they could have parties then we have bought 2.

Shrivelled · 18/04/2021 23:17

My DC accidentally had 2 cakes for his birthday this year. I hope this goes some way towards balancing the national child to cake ratio that riles you so much OP.

HectorHalloumi · 18/04/2021 23:18

@mrscee

My twins shared a Colin caterpillar cake last week. I'm not buying 2 as we couldn't invite anyone else around due to Covid. In the past when they could have parties then we have bought 2.

Cuthbert for the other one, I hope? Grin

Longingforatikihut · 18/04/2021 23:18

Jeez, if it's a crime against childhood to share a cake I must have been neglected. I never had a birthday cake growing up.

Swipe left for the next trending thread