To think that bringing cakes into work is a bit try hard

[Cateyes113]

Fair enough if it's for an special event or something. It's a nice gesture, but I think bringing in cakes for everyone 'just because' is people trying to be liked and win people over. Maybe I'm just miserable.

Unless you're being force fed, YABU.

In our office we have cakes for birthdays, promotions, exam passes, holiday treats.. it's great!

Some people like baking but live alone, or want to try out new recipes. There's no harm in them bringing the excess into work or asking for people's opinions.

I do this sometimes for my office. Live near a cracking bakery who does cakes at great prices so I’ll randomly bring some in. Wouldn’t subject them to my home baking but it’s always greatly received.

Sometimes a treat just makes the day a bit easier

Wow, how absolutely joyless! I haven't seen any home made cakes in the office for a long time but back in the days when it was fairly common, it was always greatly appreciated when someone brought in something nice to share. Nobody ever associated it with ass kissing or trying too hard.

YABU. They like cake and they like company eating it - nothing wrong with that.

Homemade cake is so much better than factory cake - it is one of the few things I am given that I could not just buy for myself. And there is often a story and history behind someone's signature cake - I love that.

I enjoy baking but am trying to be healthy so I take it into work. They all seem to appreciate the cakes so it's all good.
I'm guessing you don't like this woman and this is another "annoying trait" that irks you.

I sometimes do it because I'm experimenting with a recipe or doing something for a newsletter I write. Two of us won't eat 12 cupcakes/ a whole cake so why waste the extra?

@Coughee

Even if people are just trying to be liked, does it matter? Trying too hard to be liked is hardly an horrendous character trait. Eat the cake, maybe it'll sweeten you up a bit....

I agree.

How sad that they're bringing gifts so people will like them and they're being scorned for doing something nice. How about thinking about why they don't feel they're liked and how you can rectify that. Maybe you bring them some cake!

Definitely miserable. Wouldn't it make your life more pleasant to eat more cake consider that most people are generally good and kind?

You're being U and you know it @Cateyes113. So cut to the chase and tell us why the baker bothers you.

Yabu

I like to bake with my son but I’d be huge if I ate everything we made! Not sure taking the uneaten half of his birthday cake to work is “try hard” though…

Yes.....your just miserable.
Always someone who wants to pour doom and gloom on any situation

I don’t know, OP, I can’t put myself in the shoes of someone who decided to wake up and complain about free cake.

Please everyone try very hard to be liked by bribing me with free cake, it will work.

YABU. I worked in a big office with lots of separate teams and cubicles for a while, people would often bring in cakes. They or their team leader would send round an email saying there are cakes on Susie's desk/Susie has brought cakes, they're in the blue Tupperware in the kitchen etc. It was a really sweet gesture because otherwise it could have been a bit of a soulless environment, and you got to know people on friendlier terms across the whole office.

In small teams, who see each other everyday, it's been the norm to be honest, and very popular. We didn't like those who didn't do it so often any less.

I'm another whose DC enjoy baking but don't much want to eat what they bake, so I take it to work. As long as the person who bakes isn't pressuring you into eating it, who cares?

There may be an element of doing it to be liked, but is that a bad thing? Offices function much better when people do little kind things for each other, like the coffee run or making a round of teas or helping each other fix the printer or tidying the office kitchen.

What would win you over OP?

YABVU

Why do you care? It has nothing to do with you nor do you have to eat it. I can’t imagine being annoyed about someone simply bringing in cake regardless of their reasons.

I managed a small team for 16 years, and l used to bake for them.
Like a PP, l lived on my own, but l love baking.
I did it at first to say thank you, when we'd had a really tough, busy time, and they'd really worked their socks off.
When l took the cakes in they were thrilled, and put the kettle on straight away.
After that l'd do it maybe once a month (one of my colleagues also did it, after we'd both baked to raise money for a good cause). We'd alternate our baking sessions and swap recipes.
The others (the men, anyway) would often reciprocate by bringing in picky bits or buffet food for the rest of us (we worked shifts and weekends).

I once made Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake which went down a storm. One of the lads asked me if l'd make one for his dad's birthday.
I don't think (speaking personally) it was about wanting to be liked.
We all liked home made cakes, and l was always thrilled when my colleague brought her Mars Bar Cake in.
We didn't get bonuses (public sector) and it just felt like something to do for people we liked and worked with. We all looked forward to cake day! And so far as l remember, no one ever refused any of it. In fact we made enough so people could take some home, too, and they did.

I feel sorry for the person you work with who is baking things to be kind, and perhaps she or he do want to be liked, but to be met with such scorn as that which you are exhibiting, is not nice.

Yep, you're definitely miserable! I bring cake when I want cake

Can't you bake?

You're not just being miserable, you're being nasty too.

I hope nobody I work with is reading this. Please keep bringing cakes in.

I've done it on occasion. Usually when we've all had a really crap week and everyone's morale is flagging a bit.

Nah you are being miserable Op :)
If you work with someone and you like them it won't just be because of cakes...

I take cakes in very occasionally, i usually buy a tray of something on a whim at Costco just coz i feel like it, not to suck up