A piece cake

[keyk] /keɪk/
noun
a sweet, baked, breadlike food, made with or without shortening, and usually containing flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, eggs, and liquid flavoring.
a flat, thin m-ss of bread, especially unleavened bread.
pancake; griddlecake.
a shaped or molded m-ss of other food:
a fish cake.
a shaped or compressed m-ss:
a cake of soap; a cake of ice.
animal husbandry. a compacted block of soybeans, cottonseeds, or linseeds from which the oil has been pressed, usually used as a feed or feed supplement for cattle.
verb (used with object), caked, caking.
to form into a crust or compact m-ss.
verb (used without object), caked, caking.
to become formed into a crust or compact m-ss.
idioms
a piece of cake, informal. something easily done:
she thought her first solo flight was a piece of cake.
take the cake, informal.

to surp-ss all others, especially in some undesirable quality; be extraordinary or unusual:
his arrogance takes the cake.
to win first prize.

related forms
caky, cakey, adjective
noncaking, adjective, noun
uncake, verb (used with object), uncaked, uncaking.
synonyms
cake
/keɪk/
noun
a baked food, usually in loaf or layer form, typically made from a mixture of flour, sugar, and eggs
a flat thin m-ss of bread, esp unleavened bread
a shaped m-ss of dough or other food of similar consistency: a fish cake
a m-ss, slab, or crust of a solidified or compressed substance, as of soap or ice
have one’s cake and eat it, to enjoy both of two desirable but incompatible alternatives
(informal) go like hot cakes, sell like hot cakes, to be sold very quickly or in large quant-ties
(informal) piece of cake, something that is easily achieved or obtained
(informal) take the cake, to surp-ss all others, esp in stupidity, folly, etc
(informal) the whole or total of something that is to be shared or divided: the miners are demanding a larger slice of the cake, that is a fair method of sharing the cake
verb
(transitive) to cover with a hard layer; encrust: the hull was caked with salt
to form or be formed into a hardened m-ss
derived forms
cakey, caky, adjective
word origin
c13: from old norse kaka; related to danish kage, german kuchen
cake
n.

early 13c., from old norse kaka “cake,” from west germanic -kokon- (cf. middle dutch koke, dutch koek, old high german huohho, german kuchen). not now believed to be related to latin coquere “to cook,” as formerly supposed. replaced its old english cognate, coecel.

what man, i trow ye raue, wolde ye bothe eate your cake and haue your cake? [“the proverbs & epigrams of john heywood,” 1562]

originally (until early 15c.) “a flat, round loaf of bread.” piece of cake “something easy” is from 1936. the let them eat cake story is found in rousseau’s “confessions,” in reference to an incident c.1740, long before marie antoinette, though it has been -ssociated with her since c.1870; it apparently was a chestnut in the french royal family that had been told of other princesses and queens before her.

v.

c.1600, from cake (n.). related: caked; caking.
noun

the female genitals (1940s+ black)
a s-xually attractive woman; fox (1940s+ black)
(also cake-eater) a ladies’ man; dude: his brown hat, fixed square-shaped the way the cakes were wearing them (1920s+)
piece of cake (1910+)

related terms

babycakes, coffee and cakes, cut cake, fruitcake, ice the cake, nutball, piece of cake, take the cake

cakes made of wheat or barley were offered in the temple. they were salted, but unleavened (ex. 29:2; lev. 2:4). in idolatrous worship thin cakes or wafers were offered “to the queen of heaven” (jer. 7:18; 44:19). pancakes are described in 2 sam. 13:8, 9. cakes mingled with oil and baked in the oven are mentioned in lev. 2:4, and “wafers unleavened anointed with oil,” in ex. 29:2; lev. 8:26; 1 chr. 23:29. “cracknels,” a kind of crisp cakes, were among the things jeroboam directed his wife to take with her when she went to consult ahijah the prophet at shiloh (1 kings 14:3). such hard cakes were carried by the gibeonites when they came to joshua (9:5, 12). they described their bread as “mouldy;” but the hebrew word _nikuddim_, here used, ought rather to be rendered “hard as biscuit.” it is rendered “cracknels” in 1 kings 14:3. the ordinary bread, when kept for a few days, became dry and excessively hard. the gibeonites pointed to this hardness of their bread as an evidence that they had come a long journey. we read also of honey-cakes (ex. 16:31), “cakes of figs” (1 sam. 25:18), “cake” as denoting a whole piece of bread (1 kings 17:12), and “a [round] cake of barley bread” (judg. 7:13). in lev. 2 is a list of the different kinds of bread and cakes which were fit for offerings.

cake
cake

in general, any of a variety of breads, shortened or unshortened, usually shaped by the tin in which it is baked; more specifically, a sweetened bread, often rich or delicate.
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