'Insufferable' mother-in-law demands dessert made using her exact recipe, daughter-in-law tricks her into eating a different recipe: 'She loved it'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 14, 2025 5:00 PM EST

Making food for the biggest critics in your life can drain you of any will to cook or bake at all. What's the point in spending hours measuring, stirring, and simmering your food over a hot stove, just for your own family members to criticize it? 

We tend to take the food-preppers in our lives for granted. Oftentimes, just one or two people in a household do most of the cooking. Just consider how many times as a kid you whined to your parents about not wanting to eat chicken again, or begging to order pizza when they told you you were having a crock pot roast (guilty as charged!). Of course, when you're a little kid, you might be ungrateful for your parents cooking you fresh meals every day because you're a tiny baby who doesn't understand things. But this woman is dealing with something else entirely: her fully grown mother-in-law has a lot to say about her baking, and she's certainly old enough to know that her words have impact. 

That's right, a fully grown woman is critiquing her daughter-in-law's food. Imagine being upset that your DIL's cookies don't have enough "snap," or that "the crust was a little too thick." Some people spend their one short life caring about things like that. A cookie would have to drop on the floor and roll through a bunch of dust bunnies before I'd refuse to eat it, and yet here comes the world's most irritating MIL worried about the cookies not having enough snap. Please! This baker is welcome to send any sweet treats to the Fail Blog offices, where I assure you, they will be eaten hastily and appreciated, with 0 complaints. But more realistically, I hope this baker has other people in her life that she can focus on, who are actually nice to her, and who appreciate the hard work that goes into hand-baking delectable treats. 

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  • 01

    'I purposely do not make a requested "heirloom" recipe, but pass it off as if I do'

    Woman in red shirt with brown ponytail holds tray of cookies, in front of her stands old woman looking unhappy
    via A. C. For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    I bake a lot, so I am always expected to bring a lot to my mother in law's holiday gatherings.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 03
    This is a group of people that complain about ev.er.y.thing so I always stress over what to bring and it almost never makes them happy for one reason or another.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 04
    And they will eagerly tell you why. The crust was a little too thick. Cookies didn't have enough snap.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 05
    It was too "complicated". They have had a different version and liked it better. "Don't bring this next year because it gave me heartburn".
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 06
    After her mother passed, my mother in law asked me to make fudge from her mom's recipe because it's the only one she has ever liked and according to her, EVERY other fudge she has tried has been wrong in some way.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 07
    She sent me the recipe and it made absolutely no sense. I couldn't read half of it and it was incomplete.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 08
    Mother in law got snippy when I asked a few clarifying questions, so instead I found a basic ass fudge recipe from a cookbook I had and made that, telling her that I "figured it out".
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 09
    She loved it. I was shocked. She said that only her mom's fudge had that kind of texture and she brags about it being her mom's recipe to others that try it.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 10
    It's been five years, and while I'm stuck making it every year now, it's become my little "f you" to an insufferable woman.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 11
    OP SurpriseP 1) I love you 2) I have been working on it. We have been slowly distancing ourselves from his family for a while now, and my partner, bless him, usually doesn't have problems telling them why lol
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 12
    Lake Tilia Wait wait wait... okay sorry just need to back track for a second. Why in the fuck are you still going through all of this effort to appease people who go out of their way to criticise your efforts? You are inadvertently enabling their bad behaviour by continually making goods so that they can condem them. Please, for the sake of your own dignity stop playing into their game. If your in law snaps at you for asking clarifying questions on a favour you are doing for her then you should
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 13
    OP SurpriseP Haha! That is amazing!
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 14
    razz1161 That reminds me of a story that happened long ago. My wife worked at a very large hospital. She was scheduled to work the Fourth of July. Her department wanted to celebrate with an in- house picnic. Everyone was to bring a dish and chip in for ribs. I was involuntarily volunteered to smoke the ribs. I went to the supermarket and purchased ribs and a couple of bottles of a commercial marinade. I marinated the ribs overnight, then smoked them ribs. I delivered the ribs, went home and had
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 15
    OP SurpriseP I refuse to go out to eat with them because they are 100% THAT table. Every single time.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 16
    gameraven13 I bet she's also the type of person who complains about her order being wrong, the person takes it to the back but doesn't actually change anything, and now suddenly it's all better and fixed.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 17
    OP SurpriseP I wish I knew where it was! She texted it to me, I think it's on my old phone.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 18
    Kitty_Seriously Now I want to know the "heirloom" recipe!
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 19
    darkluna_94 You handled it perfectly sometimes a little white lie keeps the peace and your sanity.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 20
    albrasel24 That's hilarious. You basically reverse-engineered peace at family gatherings. Honestly, if she's happy and you're less stressed, that's a win for everyone.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 21
    littleblackkeeniecat Ok, now I want the recipe
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  • 22
    Goldberryo TulgeyWood My friend did this with pies at Thanksgiving. She'll cut them out of their tins and stick them in her own pie pans, then add a crumble top and stick them under the broiler. People rave about them haha
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 23
    Ankshisanon this has big "phoebe's gramdma Nestléeee Tollhouuuuuuuse" energy
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 24
    Weary-Bid6861 Sometimes the best revenge is just quietly letting them praise you for something that was never what they thought it was.
    via u/SurpriseP***
  • 25
    Young woman in red shirt and apron holds tray of cookies
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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family drama daughter in law aita mother in laws mother in law family daughter
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