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cake

Flag: gbEnglishOxford Dictionary of English
cake /keɪk /
▸ noun
1 an item of soft sweet food made from a mixture of flour, fat, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients, baked and sometimes iced or decorated:
a delicious cake smothered with whipped cream
a fruit cake
[as modifier] a cake shop
[mass noun] a mouthful of cake.
▪ (the cake) British English the amount of money or assets available to be divided up or shared:
you have not received a fair slice of the education cake.
2 an item of savoury food formed into a flat round shape, and typically baked or fried:
a starter of goat's cheese and potato cakes.
▪ a flattish compact mass of something, especially soap:
a cake of soap.
▸ verb [with object] (of a thick or sticky substance that hardens when dry) cover and become encrusted on (the surface of an object):
his clothes were caked in mud.
▪ [no object] (of a thick or sticky substance) dry or harden into a solid mass:
the blood under his nose was beginning to cake.
– PHRASES
cakes and ale dated
lively enjoyment:
the gardener's life, as a rule, is not all ‘cakes and ale’.
[from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night II. 3. 1]
you can't have your cake and eat it too proverb
you can't enjoy both of two desirable but mutually exclusive alternatives:
the king wanted to have his cake and eat it—to marry Mrs Simpson and to remain on the throne.
– DERIVATIVES
cakey /ˈkeɪki / adjective
– ORIGIN Middle English (denoting a small flat bread roll): of Scandinavian origin; related to Swedish kaka and Danish kage.