# So why can't you have your cake and eat it too? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829 "2006-11-10T04:57:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/1 "2006-11-10T04:57:06Z")
I always hear people saying “Well, she just wants her cake and to eat it too.” Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with cake? Eat it? What are you supposed to do with it, look at it? What is the story behind this saying? I understand that it’s supposed to mean two things you want are incompatible, but how did this saying come to mean that? Because it just doesn’t make sense to me. Why can’t one have their cake and eat it as well? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/2 "2006-11-10T05:04:34Z")
> **[World Wide Words: Have your cake and eat it](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hav2.htm)** > > Which way around should one say the phrase 'eat your cake and have it', or 'have your cake and eat it'? ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/3 "2006-11-10T05:05:03Z")
damn, you’re on time. thanks, sam. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Rosewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mr.Rosewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Rosewater)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/4 "2006-11-10T05:07:06Z")
If have your cake, you haven’t eaten it. If you eat your cake you no longer have it. Thus, the having and the eating are incompatible. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Rosewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mr.Rosewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Rosewater)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/5 "2006-11-10T05:10:04Z")
Or see **samclem** ’s link. (which I would have seen had I previewed) ---
**Author:** ![MrDantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@MrDantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/6 "2006-11-10T05:14:58Z")
I learned about this phrase in economics. IIRC, it had something to do with opportunity costs… The opportunity cost of eating your cake was having your cake, because you can’t do both. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/7 "2006-11-10T14:12:51Z")
:smack: And here I was, thinking that it was because “having cake” is often used to me “eating cake”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/8 "2006-11-10T14:18:02Z")
I say ‘You can’t eat your cake and have it too’. To me, it’s clearer that way. Of course, Ted Kaczynski said it that way. (Only I do not make or mail bombs, and I _like_ technology.) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/9 "2006-11-10T15:09:30Z")
I always thought that was an admonition to make more cakes! ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/10 "2006-11-10T15:21:42Z")
If you have your cake in front of you, you have it in front of you. If you eat it you have it and all of its delicious goodness in your belly. Either way you have it. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/11 "2006-11-10T15:24:56Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Rosewater] If you eat your cake you no longer have it. [/QUOTE] Oh? But you still DO have it. It is just IN a different place! ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/12 "2006-11-10T16:36:23Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > It is just IN a different place! How true. From [The Incredible Shrinking Cake](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050539/quotes): > [@Cake](#): > > I was continuing to shrink, to become… what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a cake? Or was I the cake of the future?..I had thought in terms of a cake’s own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in a cake’s conception, not nature’s. And I felt my ingredients dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero…[shouts]…I still exist! ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/13 "2006-11-10T17:00:28Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] I say ‘You can’t eat your cake and have it too’. To me, it’s clearer that way. [/QUOTE] Me too, once I figured out what the heck it meant. ---
**Author:** ![guppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@guppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guppy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/14 "2006-11-10T17:16:44Z")
[QUOTE=Jake] If you have your cake in front of you, you have it in front of you. If you eat it you have it and all of its delicious goodness in your belly. Either way you have it. [/QUOTE] Is the former cake stuff in your belly cake? I’d hate to see that stuff in front of me on my birthday with a candle in it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/15 "2006-11-10T22:30:06Z")
So if you’re at a birthday party and the host says, “who’s having cake?” you should probably keep your hand down and wait for him to ask who’s **eating** cake. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/16 "2006-11-11T08:06:24Z")
[QUOTE=galt] So if you’re at a birthday party and the host says, “who’s having cake?” you should probably keep your hand down and wait for him to ask who’s **eating** cake. [/QUOTE] Well if you insist on that interpretation of “having” then the phrase simply means you can’t eat something twice. Same implication, really. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/17 "2006-11-11T10:06:42Z")
One is unable to possess their comestibles and consume them also. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/18 "2006-11-11T12:19:41Z")
Usually if I have my cake and eat it too, a few days later it goes into the sewer. Now what? ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/19 "2006-11-11T12:40:09Z")
This thread takes the cake. Takes the cake. \ But where do you take a cake? You gotta take a cake somewhere. You know where I take a cake? …Down to the bakery to see all the other cakes .(insane look on face) \ ---
**Author:** ![Sutremaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@Sutremaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sutremaine)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-cant-you-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/379829/20 "2006-11-11T22:39:20Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] Usually if I have my cake and eat it too, a few days later it goes into the sewer. Now what? [/QUOTE] More cake!