If you loooove baking...

[Anonymous]

This may the #1 conflict in my life. I love to bake. My household is one overweight adult (me) and one kid who somehow doesn’t like the vast majority of sweets. His tastes run from a vanilla pound cake to snickerdoodles, with almost nothing in between.
I bake a lot less than I would like, but:
I volunteer to bring dessert whenever getting together with friends
I take homemade treats as hostess gifts whenever possible (things that aren’t mistaken for a dessert— chocolate truffles, jam, etc)
I sign up to bring things to bake sales
I find recipes for small scale baking (there are a ton of recipes on Pinterest, and there are a few cookbooks, one new one is Small Batch Bakes by the winner of a season of The Great British Baking Show).
Lastly, my son, now a teen, is part of a team. Whenever they have a competition I send in a batch of baked goods. If you ever want to feel really good about your baking, and know everything will get eaten, find a bunch of 16-17 year olds!

[Anonymous]

Three young men live next door to me and I just give it to them. They gobble it up.

[Anonymous]

I eat it which is why I’m fat. 😭

OTOH I am a good baker and my bakes taste good.

[Anonymous]

I’d like to be your friend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for the suggestions for local charities -- I'm going to look into those and reach out to find out when/what they will take and see if I can arrange that regularly to scratch my baking itch.

I am afraid to do the teacher's lounge donations or do lots of baked goods as gifts because I have heard too many people talk about how much they hate being given these sorts of foods as a gift or having it around their workplace if they are trying to watch their intake of certain foods. I used to work in an office where my officemate would complain about this almost daily Halloween through New Years, and also anytime people brought a treat back from a vacation, because she really struggled with not indulging when it was sitting right there. So I try to be very careful to never give unsolicited baked goods. Our friends know I love to do it and will often request something when they host us and I've even had friends ask me if I would make their kid's birthday cakes if they buy the ingredients and I've done that a bunch of times. But I won't just give baked good to someone unsolicited because I worry they will either resent it or just throw them away.

I think most teachers would be thrilled for high-quality homemade baked goods to show up in the lounge.

I don’t know about real life, but teachers on DCUM often say they throw homemade treats away.

[Anonymous]

All good suggestions, but people have become so weird about eating homemade items that don’t come from a licensed commercial kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for the suggestions for local charities -- I'm going to look into those and reach out to find out when/what they will take and see if I can arrange that regularly to scratch my baking itch.

I am afraid to do the teacher's lounge donations or do lots of baked goods as gifts because I have heard too many people talk about how much they hate being given these sorts of foods as a gift or having it around their workplace if they are trying to watch their intake of certain foods. I used to work in an office where my officemate would complain about this almost daily Halloween through New Years, and also anytime people brought a treat back from a vacation, because she really struggled with not indulging when it was sitting right there. So I try to be very careful to never give unsolicited baked goods. Our friends know I love to do it and will often request something when they host us and I've even had friends ask me if I would make their kid's birthday cakes if they buy the ingredients and I've done that a bunch of times. But I won't just give baked good to someone unsolicited because I worry they will either resent it or just throw them away.

I think most teachers would be thrilled for high-quality homemade baked goods to show up in the lounge.

I don’t know about real life, but teachers on DCUM often say they throw homemade treats away.

Teachers get lots of home baked gifts and have the same issue you do at home. Most end up in the teachers lounge and then tossed though the thought is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Could you do a fund raiser for a cause...a baked sale

[Anonymous]

Teacher here and I say take it there! High quality, homemade baked goods are rare! Anyone who doesn’t want to partake doesn’t have to.
There’s also a student run organization in Montgomery County that will take homemade birthday cakes as donations. It’s called Birthdaycakes4free, i think. They only have 1 drop off a month but you can freeze and donate. All cakes go to local adults and children living in various shelters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you handle wanting to bake more things than your family can conceivably consume or that are reasonable to take into the office?

Baking is something I do to relax and I find it deeply satisfying. I'm very good at it and have reached a point where I can tweak recipes and experiment and it works out well. I collect baking recipes and am always thinking up a new idea of something to bake.

But my household is just my DH and DD and we can't eat all the bread, pastries, cakes, and cookies I want to bake. I give things to neighbors and I always volunteer to bake whenever we are invited to someone's house or there's a bake sale or any excuse really. It's still hard! I often find myself choosing not to bake even though it's something I really enjoy because I don't want to wind up with an excess.

Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do? My DH's tongue in cheek suggestion was that I become a professional but I don't think that's the answer . I got a book of savory baking recipes to try and branch out but they are still mostly snacks foods, not dinner, so it's not helping that much.

Cakes4kids. Charity baking.

Or I give to my DH to take it into his work.

[Anonymous]

if you know a nurse that could take them, i know they like it when treats show up.

[Anonymous]

I work for a large Title I school that has no PTA/PTO. We get very little for staff appreciation (sometimes a church group will bring us food). I can guarantee you it would get eaten at our school! Look for schools that have needy populations and I bet the teachers would appreciate it there.

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of experience with this, as I chose to bake my way through a published list of 30 cakes as a pandemic project. What you need is a roster of your friends, family, neighbours, coworkers, etc. Seriously, make a spreadsheet if you need to. The number of people in each family (because this determines the size/portion you’ll give them) and what their preferred flavour choices are. I have one couple that gets everything because one of them likes chocolate, the other lemon flavours, and they’ll eat nuts, raisins, you name it. Another family won’t take anything they contains nuts. One person hates citrus in desserts, so he’s out where any of those are concerned. If you have a big enough group, you’ll be able to distribute it all without overwhelming people/giving them things they don’t enjoy.

Since then, I’ve learned that the hospices in my area also accept baking for their staff and volunteer break rooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a lot of experience with this, as I chose to bake my way through a published list of 30 cakes as a pandemic project. What you need is a roster of your friends, family, neighbours, coworkers, etc. Seriously, make a spreadsheet if you need to. The number of people in each family (because this determines the size/portion you’ll give them) and what their preferred flavour choices are. I have one couple that gets everything because one of them likes chocolate, the other lemon flavours, and they’ll eat nuts, raisins, you name it. Another family won’t take anything they contains nuts. One person hates citrus in desserts, so he’s out where any of those are concerned. If you have a big enough group, you’ll be able to distribute it all without overwhelming people/giving them things they don’t enjoy.

Since then, I’ve learned that the hospices in my area also accept baking for their staff and volunteer break rooms.

Can I ask what list of 30 cakes you baked through? This sounds like a project I would enjoy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a lot of experience with this, as I chose to bake my way through a published list of 30 cakes as a pandemic project. What you need is a roster of your friends, family, neighbours, coworkers, etc. Seriously, make a spreadsheet if you need to. The number of people in each family (because this determines the size/portion you’ll give them) and what their preferred flavour choices are. I have one couple that gets everything because one of them likes chocolate, the other lemon flavours, and they’ll eat nuts, raisins, you name it. Another family won’t take anything they contains nuts. One person hates citrus in desserts, so he’s out where any of those are concerned. If you have a big enough group, you’ll be able to distribute it all without overwhelming people/giving them things they don’t enjoy.

Since then, I’ve learned that the hospices in my area also accept baking for their staff and volunteer break rooms.

Can I ask what list of 30 cakes you baked through? This sounds like a project I would enjoy.

Sure - I’ve talked about it on here before, in fact a few of the people on this board and I now follow each other on Instagram because that’s where I’ve documented the cake project. It was the Southern Living list of 30 Vintage Cakes that Deserve a Comeback, although when I’d finished 28 cakes they added to the list, so now it’s: 48 Vintage Cakes that Deserve a Comeback https://www.southernliving.com/food/desserts/cakes/vintage-cakes