'AITA for eating a normal portion of the cake my aunt made for my birthday?'
"AITA for eating a normal portion of the cake my aunt made for my birthday?"
For context, I (25M) love to cook. All the recipes I make, I've learned from my late paternal grandfather. One of my grandpa's dishes that I often make for almost every family gathering is his bananas foster, and for our family, it's definitely a crowd-pleaser.
However, bananas are not my favorite food/flavor. I'll have a bite of the dish to make sure the dish tastes right, and I'll usually have a small portion of the bananas foster I've made. I celebrated my birthday last week, and many of my friends and family attended, including my aunt (my dad's older sister by 2 or 3 years).
During the party, she approached me and gave me a bananas foster cake she made. I took the cake, thanked my aunt for it, placed it on the dessert table, and got a slice for myself. Admittedly, I did take a smaller portion of the cake, but when I ate it, I definitely thought it was delicious, which I also told my aunt at my party. The day after my party, I received a call from my aunt. Our conversation went like this (not exact words):
Aunt: Hey OP, did you enjoy the cake I made? Me: Yes, it was delicious, which I told you during the party. Aunt: So, why did you get a smaller slice than usual? At this point, I was deciding to tell the truth or say a white lie.
But I thought if I lied this might be a bigger issue in the future so I told her the truth, instead. Me: Bananas aren't my favorite flavor, but since you gifted me that cake, I still had a slice. Aunt: I made that cake for your birthday, so you should have eaten most of it. It was rude of you to put it on the dessert table for everyone else to eat it. It's like you re-gifted my cake to everyone else.
Me: I'm sorry if it came off that way but I find it unreasonable for me to have majority of a cake with a flavor I don't like. I thought of sharing it with everyone made sure that what you made didn't go to waste. From the looks of it, a lot of people liked your cake as there was none of it left. Aunt: Also, if you don't like bananas that much, why do you keep on making dad's bananas foster?
Me: I know it was one of grandpa's favorite recipes and a lot of people in our family love that dish, so I keep on making it despite my not liking the taste of bananas. Aunt: That is not an excuse to be disrespectful and ungrateful... (she then hangs up).
I don't think I was disrespectful or ungrateful for what I did. My parents, siblings, and even my cousins (my aunt's children) are on my side, and some of them thought she overreacted. So, AITA?
Here's what people had to say to OP:
Edges8 says:
NTA this is a wild take. she thought you should have eaten the majority of the cake by yourself? does she not understand how cakes work?
fndnvolusrgofksb says:
NTA. Your aunt is unhinged. Obviously birthday cakes are meant to be shared. Did she expect to sit in the corner and eat the whole thing?
Wertreou says:
Apparently I've been doing things wrong my whole life. Last time I had a birthday cake, I cut it up and gave most of it away to my friends.
ScheduledYeti284 says:
NTA. She's unhinged, who the hell expects someone to eat an entire cake by themselves?