Labelling cake tins or cutlery you have loaned.

Labels help the borrower, but the real problem is the lender's memory: by the time the tin is missed, nobody can say who had it. A few people I know keep a running note on the phone the moment something leaves the house, 'two 8 inch tins to the community café, 14 June', and delete the line when it comes back. It takes ten seconds and settles every 'did I ever get that back' argument. A notebook by the door does the same; an app that stores a dictated sentence and finds it again by name, XNeuronal for instance, means you can ask 'who has my tins' months later without scrolling; and a photo of the item in the note stops the 'it was never yours' reply. For the tins themselves, an engraving pen on the base survives the oven where marker does not.

I would put my cakes in a quality street tub, but of course they are shrinking at a rate of knots, so will
Just put in tin foil next time.
& don’t lend your cutlery out!

I could try Sharpies. Thanks FF
I reminded my friend today that she still had some cutlery. I felt a real stinge!
She said she knew but that somebody helped with the clearing up who didn't.

They weren't my best set anyway.

SHARPIES come in all colours including metallic silver and gold so should work fine.

I put a sticky label on the tin with my name on. Usually it’s for a church do, if it’s not returned can usually be found in the church kitchen.

I’m afraid I certainly wouldn’t be lending anything like a freezer, I can’t get over the cheek of the woman, you are much more tolerant than I am!

I found one tin today with half the cake still in it. Someone had put it on the freezer at the Town Hall.

Oops.
Cutlery or similar I’d take a photo as it was lent.

I’d scratch my initials on the base, did it years ago at school with a compass!

Nail varnish could melt in high temperatures and also is flammable!

Nail varnish might work

I do use the tin liners - such a good invention - but I take the cakes when they are still hot.

I can see I shall just have to do what the other bakers do . Make the cake the day before and take it in it's time liner.

I will probably find the missing tins tomorrow at the venue.

Oreo

eddiecat78

I write on the base of my tins with black permanent marker - it lasts ages. I sometimes write the size on too.
I don't think I would loan cutlery unless it was some I didn't mind losing.

My cake tins are all black, so that wouldn’t work, but wonder if there’s a white marker?

Same here!

Can you use tin liners and just take the cakes in that? They're widely available.

I use the liners anyway, in case the cake sticks to the tin. You can carefully lift them from the tin to cool the cake on a rack.

I’m not much of a baker, but when I have to take something to a function or a friend’s house, I always take it in a Christmas Quality Street/Roses type plastic box, which I’ve found are always still there at the end of the evening or next time I go for some reason - nobody wants them. I keep two or three in the garage just in case I need one.

My friend lent a neighbour a freezer when hers conked out.

After a while she asked for it back, and the neighbour more or less said no, she still needed it.

This from someone who puts her name on charity shop jigsaw puzzles if she lends them after doing them, to make sure you know it’s hers.

I’m surprised my friend is still on good terms with this neighbour, who still has the freezer!

Afraid I belong to the ‘neither a borrower….’ brigade.

Nail varnish! Or permanent markers which come in every colour know to man! Silver should show on black.

Cool it in the tin and then remove and wrap. Easy!

I inherited my MiL’s storage cake tins. On the underside of some of them is a message to my FiL “x this way up”. On one of them the message reads “x, it’s supposed to be upside down!” It always makes me smile when I use them.

That's right easybee.
Never a borrower or a lender be or at least never lend anything which you would mind losing.

Our most annoying was a lawnmower - an old fashioned push one but a great design which we still used.
The young people who borrowed it didn't return it and moved out of their rented house leaving the mower behind!
When we asked for it back they didn't offer to retrieve it. Anyway we never got it back.
A bit like your dog pen synchro swimmer
Grr

A piece of Elastoplast for dishes and coloured thread on cutlery.
(instructions from the school Christmas party long, long ago.)

Plus an irate mother if you returned home without them.

I will take it in a bag in future. Trouble is it's often still hot so I leave it in the tin.
.I don't think tippex would work. It has solvents in it so shouldn't go in the oven.

I will try to get the rest of my cutlery back although it's a second "set " not all matching.
So perhaps it wasn't obvious. My friend is coming for supper tonight so I will mention it.
.

Grammaretto

I had to buy a new loaf tin today because all 3 of the ones I own are either lost forever or not returned.
I bake a cake/ loaf each week for our community café but I am not always around at clearing up time.

Is there a way of clearly marking the tins whilst keeping them hygienic and oven proof?

Cutlery too can be a problem. I lent 15 of everything to a friend for her party recently but only got half back.

"Hi Emily, Could I have the rest of my cutlery back please? I lent you 15 of everything . Need it for the weekend when the kids come.

Take cakes to cafe in a plastic freezer bag.

I loaned someone a dog playpen (cage) for their new puppy.
They proudly showed me how they had repurposed it into a garden compost bin!
(I still have extra playpen extension segments here in storage 🙄)

For !

Keep a note, stick a label on loaf or cake tins or tupperwares and ask fir them back