Who should buy the cake for an office birthday?
Both at fault
The short answer
Office birthday cakes should rotate or come from a small shared fund. One person buying them all is a habit everyone else is quietly using.
The ruling
From the public record. Names are replaced with roles.
Small claims division
Case no.PC-2026-06097
The coworker who buys every cake v. The team that eats every cake
Filed 10/18/2026
- Plaintiff
- The coworker who buys every cake
- Defendant
- The team that eats every cake
Statement of claim
I have bought every birthday cake on our team for two years. That is 26 cakes. Nobody has offered to chip in. When I missed one birthday because I was sick, someone asked me where the cake was.
Charge
Two years of collective cake consumption without contribution, inquiry or rotation
Judgment
Both at fault
Both sides at fault after 26 office cakes from one person
Sentence
The team sets up a cake rotation by Friday. The plaintiff is excused from cake duty until the rotation reaches her again.
How the court usually rules on this
The court sees office cakes as a shared custom with no clear owner, which is how one person ends up doing all of it. The volunteer has a duty to say when it stops being voluntary. The others have a duty to notice that cakes do not appear by themselves. A rotation or a small monthly fund is the usual remedy.
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