Idiom
A piece of cake
Something that is a piece of cake is very easy to do.
How people use it
People use it about tasks, tests and jobs that turn out to be simple: the driving test was a piece of cake. It often comes as a reply to a worried question ("Was the exam hard?" "Piece of cake."), where the "a" is usually dropped. It sounds relaxed and confident, and sometimes a little boastful. It is informal; in formal writing, easy or simple works better.
Also said: piece of cake.
Examples
- Once Sam watched the video tutorial, fixing the faucet was a piece of cake.
- The math quiz was a piece of cake after all that practice.
- Don't worry about the app; setting it up is a piece of cake.
Where it comes from
It is first recorded in the 1930s, and the American poet Ogden Nash used it in a poem in the mid-1930s. British air force pilots used it widely in World War II for an easy mission. Why cake? Probably because eating a slice of cake is easy and pleasant. Some link it to cakes given as prizes, but that is only a guess.
Check yourself
1. If a task is a piece of cake, what is it like?
Answer: Very easy. A piece of cake means something is simple to do.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: After years of practice, parallel parking is a piece of cake for her.. The idiom means easy, so nearly giving up or nobody solving it contradicts it.
Word game fan? See every word hiding in CAKE.