cake

cake — noun

1. a sweet oven-made food with flour, eggs, sugar, and fat, often served in slices.

1.nounA1
Definition

a sweet oven-made food with flour, eggs, sugar, and fat, often served in slices.

Example

Aiko baked a lemon cake for her sister's school concert.

bake a cake

We ate chocolate cake in the garden after the long game.

collocation: chocolate cake

Common collocations
  • birthday cake
  • chocolate cake
  • wedding cake
  • piece of cake
  • slice of cake
Synonyms
  • dessert

    a broader word for sweet food eaten after a meal, not one specific baked item

  • sponge

    a light kind of cake, especially in British English

  • gateau

    a more formal word, often for a rich layered cake

Grammar Patterns

a cake

birthday cake

chocolate cake

a piece of cake

a slice of cake

Usage Note

Often countable when you mean a whole baked item, and often uncountable when you mean some of it as food. English commonly uses 'piece' or 'slice' when only part is being served.

Common Mistakes

I ate one cake after lunch.
I ate one piece of cake after lunch.
use 'piece' or 'slice' when you mean part of a cake, not a whole cake.

2. a small flat piece of food or another soft material that has been shaped or pres

2.nounC1
Definition

a small flat piece of food or another soft material that has been shaped or pressed into one solid unit.

Example

The soap came as a round cake in a small metal box.

pattern: a cake of soap

For lunch, Wen fried two fish cakes with cabbage.

collocation: fish cakes

Common collocations
  • cake of soap
  • cake of mud
  • fish cake
  • rice cake
  • crab cakes
Synonyms
  • patty

    usually refers to a small flat piece of food, especially meat or vegetables

  • block

    can be larger and more square, and does not suggest a flat shape

  • disk

    describes the shape, but not the idea of pressed material

Grammar Patterns

a cake of soap

a cake of mud

fish cakes

rice cakes

Usage Note

Often appears with 'of' for non-food material, as in 'a cake of soap' or 'a cake of mud'. With food, it commonly names small flat items such as fish cakes or rice cakes.

Idioms

go/sell like hot cakes

idiom

Something that is sold very quickly and in large amounts.

The new video game sold like hot cakes on its first day.

Did those handmade candles go like hot cakes at the fair?

have your cake and eat it

idiom

To want to enjoy two good things that are not possible at the same time.

Maya wants a high salary and lots of free time, but she can't have her cake and eat it.

You can't have your cake and eat it—choose one option.

the icing on the cake

idiom

Something extra that makes a good situation even better.

Getting a bonus was the icing on the cake for Sara.

The beautiful weather was the icing on the cake for our picnic.

a piece of cake

idiom

Something that is very easy to do.

The math test was a piece of cake for Diego.

Is assembling this furniture a piece of cake?

a slice/share of the cake

idiom

A part of the money or benefits that someone thinks they deserve.

Each department wants a slice of the cake from the budget.

The small businesses demanded a fair share of the cake.

take the cake

idiom

To be the most extreme or annoying example of something.

His excuse for being late really takes the cake.

Of all the rude comments, hers took the cake.

cake — verb

Word family

  • caked
    adjective

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Cake is the general word for a sweet baked item that is soft inside and often served in slices. A pie usually has a pastry shell with fruit, meat, or another filling inside, so the shape and filling matter more than softness. Pastry can mean the dough itself or baked items made from that dough, which are often lighter, crisper, or flakier than cake. A cookie is smaller, usually flatter, and made as one individual piece rather than cut from a larger whole. So you bring a cake to a birthday party, bake an apple pie for dessert, buy a cheese pastry at a station, and pack a cookie in a lunch box.

pie ↗pastry ↗cookie ↗

Etymology

Old NorseEnglish

Cake came into English from Old Norse kaka, which meant a cake. The verb developed later inside English from the noun and was used for things that form a hard lump or layer like a cake.