# You can't \_\_\_\_ your cake and \_\_\_ it too **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142 "2010-03-03T16:17:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/1 "2010-03-03T16:17:18Z")
According to this, I’ve said this phrase incorrectly my entire life. I think he’s terribly wrong, though. So which way should the phrase go? Poll in a minute… ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/2 "2010-03-03T16:20:15Z")
You can’t bake your cake and pan fry it too. Should I have a mod move this to CS? ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/3 "2010-03-03T16:26:39Z")
Since when do polls about idioms go in CS? And it looks like I got all poll-happy, and forgot to get my [linky-linky](http://matthom.com/archive/2008/02/19/commonly-misused-phrases-and-cliches) on. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/4 "2010-03-03T16:27:17Z")
Have and eat. You think _who_ is terribly wrong? ---
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/5 "2010-03-03T16:50:20Z")
Eat and have. Because if you eat it…then it’s gone? Thus you can’t eat your cake and have it, too. I’ve heard it both ways interchangeably and never really like the phrase so I don’t use it much. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/6 "2010-03-03T16:52:34Z")
Bake and fuck. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/7 "2010-03-03T16:54:21Z")
Have and eat, who can’t do that? It’s eating and then still having that you can’t do. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/8 "2010-03-03T16:56:30Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Since when do polls about idioms go in CS? Since when do threads about cake go in IMHO? 😉 I’m pretty sure it’s have/eat. But I can see this thread becoming lots of fun. You can’t frost your cake and glaze it too. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/9 "2010-03-03T17:01:41Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Have and eat, who can’t do that? > > It’s eating and then still having that you can’t do. You’ve added the word “then”, which can be seen to change the meaning. In the have/eat version, I think it’s assumed that the word “simultaneously” is in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/10 "2010-03-03T17:02:51Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > You can’t frost your cake and glaze it too. You can’t Frost your cake and Nixon it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/11 "2010-03-03T17:05:13Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Have and eat, who can’t do that? > > It’s eating and then still having that you can’t do. But the phrase isn’t “have, then eat”, it’s “have and eat”, concurrently. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/12 "2010-03-03T17:11:07Z")
The idiom is “have your cake and eat it too”. I agree that the idiom wouldn’t be so confusing if the terms were reversed–you can’t eat your cake and have it too. Lots of people don’t understand what the original idioms means, because they reason that if you have your cake, you can then eat it. But of course, the idiom means that if you eat your cake, you won’t have your cake anymore. So it would make more sense reversed. But just because it would make more sense reversed, the idiom is still “have your cake and eat it too”. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/13 "2010-03-03T17:24:58Z")
[Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_one's_cake_and_eat_it_too): > [@](#): > > The phrase’s earliest recording is from 1546 as “wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?” (John Heywood’s ‘A dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue’)[1] alluding to the impossibility of eating your cake and still having it afterwards; the modern version (where the clauses are reversed) is a corruption which was first signaled in 1812. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/14 "2010-03-03T18:08:10Z")
I always thought the prhase was a bit stupid, I mean, what’s the point of cake? Eating, obviously. There’s no point in just having it without eating it. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/15 "2010-03-03T18:13:37Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Bake and fuck. Of course you can. Just let it cool a little first. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/16 "2010-03-03T18:17:55Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Of course you can. Just let it cool a little first. But we’re talking simultaneously. Ow ow ow ow ow! You can’t have your Kate and Edith too. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/17 "2010-03-03T18:27:30Z")
See, I always thought that the phrase referred to the fact that “having cake” can mean the same thing as “eating cake”, so once you’ve had your cake you can’t eat it again. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/18 "2010-03-03T18:34:38Z")
**Leave it out in the rain** and **have that recipe again** ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/19 "2010-03-03T18:37:18Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > See, I always thought that the phrase referred to the fact that “having cake” can mean the same thing as “eating cake”, so once you’ve had your cake you can’t eat it again. The other definition of having suddenly strikes me as very odd. That is, the ownership definition. I have a BMW. I have $200 in my pocket. I have a head cold. I have a two year lease. Got that definition in your head? Good. Keep it there. “Come on over to our son’s birthday party. We’re having cake.” Does that sound like the most boring and bizarre party ever? ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142/20 "2010-03-03T18:52:04Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > The other definition of having suddenly strikes me as very odd. That is, the ownership definition. I have a BMW. I have $200 in my pocket. I have a head cold. I have a two year lease. > > Got that definition in your head? Good. Keep it there. > > “Come on over to our son’s birthday party. We’re having cake.” > > Does that sound like the most boring and bizarre party ever? That’s not what your sister said when I had her. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cant-____-your-cake-and-___-it-too/531142.md?page=2)