My daughter came home from a church youth activity the other day with an interesting story to tell. She couldn’t wait to share it with us.

They made small chocolate cakes and a delicious butter cream frosting and brought sprinkles, chocolate syrup, and candies to decorate the cakes. And then they ate them.

When they were all done there was one plain cake left over, and plenty of decorations, but they were all out of frosting. She went to put the leftover cake in the fridge to take home later. There was nothing in the refrigerator except some old condiments from the summer church picnic — ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard.

Some clever girl suggested they decorate the extra cake with those condiments for fun.

My daughter had a more sinister take. So instead, they spread they mayonnaise on the cake, drizzled chocolate sauce and sprinkles on the cake, and offered a slice to the boys — who had been playing basketball.

The first young man took a bite, struggled to maintain his composure and said “Thanks!” with a forced smile. The second young man came over and accepted a slice.

The first boy praised the delicious cake to his friend (and made exaggerated chewing motions), as he walked away to get a drink of water. “It’s good!”, he reassured the other boy, who eyed the cake skeptically.

He couldn’t imagine the girls would be this nice to him, and as he sniffed the cake he grinned as he recognized the scent of mayonnaise.

A third boy came over, and the second boy passed a slice to him. This last boy slowly and methodically ate the whole piece of mayonnaise cake without a grimace and thanked the girls afterward.

It was my son. And as I learned later, he just assumed the girls had made bad frosting, and he wanted to be polite.

Have you ever been given a slice of mayonnaise cake at work, and how did you react?