Can cake really be offensive?

[ThisWildHedgehog]

Can cake really be offensive?

So my husband bought a really nice celebration cake over the weekend. It was large, cost £20, and was absolutely delicious, but there was too much for us to eat without some going to waste.

As we were seeing my MIL, FIL and SIL, I cut the cake in half and took it round to them in the box.

My only thought was, “It’s a lovely cake, and there’s enough to share.”

When I gave it to my MIL, I said, “We’ve brought you this cake because it’s really lovely and there’s enough to share.” She replied, “That’s fine.” I thought that was a really bizarre and ungrateful response, so I said, “Well, hopefully you’ll enjoy it.” She didn’t respond to that comment at all.

Anyway, once we got home, I said to DH that I felt a bit deflated because his mum seemed so dismissive about the cake. He said, “You shouldn’t have taken it, as it’ll be taken the wrong way.”

I asked how on earth giving someone cake could be taken badly, and he said that because they’re all a bit on the larger side, it would come across as, “Fat people like cake - here’s my leftovers.” 😳

Surely not?! They’ve known me for 10 years, and we’ve often had cake together. How could that possibly be what they thought?

Gosh, I’m praying you all think I’m not being unreasonable and that there’s no way I’ve offended anyone by giving them the cake!

That's hilarious. No you didn't do a blind bit wrong and yes, it was a strange reaction. They obviously don't want to be brought cake then I guess. Id have loved it and I'm not particularly skinny

I would offer first rather than give in the driveway when they can’t refuse.

Not the point of the thread at all (n.b., OP, you did nothing wrong - but sometimes people get upset for reasons which are opaque), but I do like the useful guide to serving the cake:

Serving
Place cake on a flat surface. Carefully run a knife around the cake to release the buttercream. Remove collar. Slice using a sharp, long-bladed knife in a vertical direction. Repeat across cake. Turn cake 90 degrees, slice again in a vertical direction to create wedge shaped portions.
Clean knife blade between slices.

Gosh, without M & S guidance, I’d have never have known to cut wedges.

My neighbour baked a Christmas cake as she had expected guests for Christmas which was cancelled (first year of Covid). She brought us half the cake as they wouldn’t finish it themselves and there are 5 of us. I was delighted. I can’t see how anyone would be funny about half a cake.

This is a shop that includes the instruction 'needs cooking' on packs of raw meat.

I wonder how many people have complained that their chicken was raw or their cake wasn't nicely sliced or gave them the stated number of portions before they included this information?

How odd. You wouldn’t eat a slice of cake that had already been cut?

how did this rule evolve? Does it apply to family?

I have never really thought of cake as leftovers! I live alone so if we have a birthday celebration at my house I send the birthday person home with the rest of the cake. Would you be offended by this? Throw the cake out beciase it’s left overs?

Some of these responses are reminding me of this funny twitter exchange when some guy was moaning about socialism

I have just looked at the cake and I am HIGHLY offended that you haven't given half to me. It looks delicious!

Send it here. We have no issues with cake.

What a weird comment 😂

I am also curious to know if this poster eats in restaurants - if her reservations are to do with food hygiene, eating in restaurants is almost certainly more of a "risk" than cake which has been purchased at M&S

So would you not eat a piece of someone's wedding cake that's boxed up for guests to take with them?

Who are all these people that immediately bin anything they haven't made or bought themselves? Sorry but unless you have food allergies I think that's incredibly weird, not to mention wasteful.

Yeah, I don’t care if you think it’s weird or wasteful 🤣

I don’t even recycle so I don’t care about waste, and I’m quite okay with you thinking it’s weird 🤣

Agreed. It's always a treat when someone unexpectedly drops over home made food for me.

Get over yourself??

Fucking hell, it was only a bit of cake 😂

Excellent. I love serving suggestions too (probably one for another thread). Particularly frozen peas where the serving suggestion is…. A big bowl of peas 😂
But, back to the cake (non) issue - OP YANBU

I've now been reminded of the instructions I got with some pegs from Ikea, that included a handy graphic showing several steps for how to use them to hang out washing.

Oh and I thought this was going to be about an erotic cake shaped like a penis.

🏅

Exactly! So why is OP expecting such a response 🤣

I don’t bin everything but if I don’t want something and it was brought without asking yes I would throw it away. What I’m meant to force feed myself cake I don’t want?

When I was a child our neighbour used to make a bread pudding to use up bread. Then she’d cut it in half and bring half round to us, still hot! God it was so good. I can taste it now 50 years later.

Just a little ‘thank you’ would have been nice 🥺🫣

This is insane!
I’ve called round to my neighbours with a huge chunk of birthday cake before - we were going on holiday the day after our daughters birthday and we didn’t want it to go to waste.
it’s cake, it’s being kind. As far as I’m aware, it was received in the manner it was given.
its not like it’s half a sausage, a potato waffle and two table spoons of beans from someone’s discarded plate.

my sister will often take a few slices of cake from mine to her in-laws if there’s enough left.
most people love a bit of cake.