Would you be grossed out by homemade baked good in care package?

[BusyTraybake]

I am helping my sister put together care packages for her wedding. She is paying for the wedding party to stay in a posh hotel for a few nights. We are going to leave little care packages on the bed. I have an exceptional brownie recipe and was going to leave a trio of favours in the box. But sister’s SIL says she would never eat a homemade treat due to hygiene reasons.

obviously I will be clinically clean and wil even wear a hair net as I couldn’t think of anything worse than someone finding a hair.

Who is being weird?

Of course it's fine, don't you buy from bake sales?

Oh and at my wedding we had a cake buffet instead of just wedding cake, everything home made including the wedding cake which I made myself and decorated. (Rather proud of it) not a single complaint and everyone complimented on the quality! I arranged for a coeliac friend to make a suitable traybake to cater for the 2 gf guests we had plus her, and my dm was in charge of vegan offerings to cover the vegan plus two dairy allergies.

I honesly think this is only on MN. In real iife, I see many people sharing their food with others. Not just cake but everything.

I don’t eat home baked items unless I’ve been to the persons house, I know I probably wouldn’t get ill it’s just the thought of the potential germs/pet hair/dirty kitchen sponge that puts me off.

Agree. I’ve worked in offices where if homemade cakes are bought in most of the staff are virtually wrestling each other to the ground to get a slice!

I honestly don’t think I’ve met anyone in RL with the hygiene anxiety of MN posters.

No wonder people ended up disinfecting their shopping and wearing gloves to touch door handle in Covid if they stress out about a cake

It is weird. Here in the UK our immune systems used to have to cope with horrific levels of filth, back in the days before proper sewage systems and handwashing facilities, clean water piped into homes, no fridges, no environmental health inspections for shops and factories, and so on and so forth. Many people did die as a result of poor hygiene, but most didn't. We are made of much tougher stuff than the germphobes seem to think.

Someone will no doubt come along to say that what doesn't kill you might still make you very ill. But that's why it's not actually very smart to obsess over germs. My aunt is a hygiene freak and her kids used to get ill all the time because their immune systems weren't very robust. Meanwhile I grew up with a dad with absolutely no concept of food hygiene, who considered use by dates as the earliest date on which it was legal to eat something. We never, ever got food poisoning. My brother travelled round India with a group of students and was the only one who never got the runs.

My understanding is that baked goods are among the least risky when it comes to food poisoning anyway.

If people are going to get sick from home made food, it'll be things like shellfish and meat not cooked properly. Not butter, flour and sugar.

At my son's wedding the entire dessert course was home made by the guests - about 20(?) different people were asked to make something.

I think it's weird to not eat home made food. Most food is home made, surely?

Have you never considered for yourself now you are an adult that your mother might be wrong?

Oh stop it with your thoughtful interesting and time consuming offerings.

You should’ve had 10 packs of fondant fancies and been done with it, far more hygienic.

Are you invited to a lot of weddings?

Some very weird notions on here, do these posters never eat at a friends house? never allow their child to eat the slice of birthday cake they've been given?
As for the pp saying their mother drummed into them never to eat from a bake sale, can you not use your own thinking now?

Yes! It's the cellophane, you know. That and the nice bright colouring, and the fact that the best before date is more than a year in the future. All gives you confidence that it's perfectly safe to eat.

<rocks back and forth gibbering in the corner>

It's funny (and also not funny) because it's true.

The UPFs and BPA and phthalates and god only knows what else that are in almost all factory produced consumables these days are probably increasing our risk of cancer and infertility and all sorts of really nasty shit but no, the minuscule risk of getting the shits from a homemade brownie made in a less than spotless kitchen is something to be avoided at all costs.

Absolutely. My mother drummed a lot of things into me as a kid that, as a grown adult, I’ve completely disregarded and make my own choices.

I used to take baked goods into work and virtually everybody ate them. The ones that didn't were vegan/dieting/not eating gluten. I suppose the odd one might have been refusing politely rather than saying 'ugh, I bet your kitchen mings'....

Likewise, I took a cake to a hobby get together just before Christmas. That went down very well.

ETA We've been to a couple of weddings catered by the couple and their friends, including one to which we contributed some food. Amazingly, no one went hungry. They just ate what was on offer without a second thought.

This thread has been so sad.

Some of the nicest treats I have ever eaten have been homemade by people and brought in to work or parties.
School and village bake sales are the nicest places to be.
The thought that some people find the idea of home baked goods abhorrent has shocked me.
OP - I hope that your ILs and family would be delighted to find a homemade snack in their hotel room.

If I was staying in a hotel for a wedding and there was a care package on the bed, I'd be really pleased. And I would enjoy the brownies. As another poster said, it would concern me more re:allergens, but if you're aware of that, then I'd go ahead. When my sister got married, we had matching thin dressing gowns. I still use mine now when I'm getting ready to go out, and I'm doing my hair and makeup. I hope your sister has a great wedding!

Honestly. Their loss. 🤷‍♀️

I always maintain that most shop bought cakes are 90% nylon. I make cakes in my own kitchen, which contains elements of dog, floating microbes, germs from my breathing, I don't cover my hair (although I do wash my hands) and the kitchen sponge and cloth might well be within two metres of the finished article.

The cakes are still delicious and I don't get ill. Neither does anyone else who eats my cake. I shall have to inform them that they are taking their lives in their hands next time - I don't think it will slow them down even a little bit.

Like others i only ever come across this issue on mumsnet.

People bring home made stuff into offices and they are devoured, for buffets, for bake sales...

I think its a nice idea.

I agree. I can’t imagine going through life so fearful over absolutely nothing that you deprive yourself of some real pleasures.

Its really sad and I worry about the affect it’s having on kids who can’t touch a door handle without their mum hosing them down with anti bacterial wash

As an older person, we literally ate mud as kids and we’re still here to tell the tale

Label on gift tag, photo of your pristine kitchen on one side?

Seriously though, it wouldn't have occurred to me not to. MN have now ruined bake sales for me.

I’m mostly confused by the 2 (and possibly more) posters who have said they recognise it’s not going to make them illl, but the thought of something -what? Dirty? Not anti bacc? It’s unclear - touching the cakes puts them off. Can you articlulate. What it is about something you recognise as non-harmful that makes you so unwilling to eat it?