cake

Everyday

1. A cake is a sweet baked food made of flour, eggs, sugar and butter, often for birthdays and parties. tree →
2. A cake can be a flat round piece of other food: a fish cake. tree →
3. To be caked in mud is to be thickly covered in it. tree →

In the lessons

a thing counted, made and sold by a baker, or cut into equal pieces; cakes are good for fractions: half a cake, a quarter of a cake; phrases: «a piece of cake» (very easy), «birthday cake», «bake a cake», «cupcake»

Examples

• The baker made 110 cakes. tree →
• He sold 75 cakes. tree →
• A cake is cut into 8 pieces. tree →
• How many more cakes than pastries did he sell? tree →
• We baked a chocolate cake for Dad. tree →
• Can I have a piece of cake? tree →
• The test was a piece of cake. tree →
• His boots were caked in mud. tree →
• The cakes were smoking on the hearth. tree →

Note

Countable (a cake, cakes) and uncountable (some cake). A thing counted. «made» adds, «sold» or «ate» takes away; «cut into N pieces» makes equal parts. Trap: cakes and pastries are counted apart. «a piece of cake» can mean «very easy».

In Jewish tradition

In the Torah cakes were made of fine flour and were used in offerings, such as unleavened cakes, or as food, as when Sarah baked for her guests.

Interpretation. The twelve cakes of the showbread were set out each Sabbath in the holy tent. The rabbis saw in them the twelve tribes before God.

Examples

• With cakes of leavened bread he shall present his offering with the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving. (Torah LEV.7.13, JPS 1917) tree →
• And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth parts of an ephah shall be in one cake. (Torah LEV.24.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said: 'Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.' (Torah GEN.18.6, JPS 1917) tree →
• Ephraim, he mixeth himself with the peoples; Ephraim is become a cake not turned. (Prophets HOS.7.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• And she took dough, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes. (Prophets 2SA.13.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• And they will salute thee, and give thee two cakes of bread; which thou shalt receive of their hand. (Prophets 1SA.10.4, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Countable (a cake, cakes) and uncountable (some cake). A thing counted. «made» adds, «sold» or «ate» takes away; «cut into N pieces» makes equal parts. Trap: cakes and pastries are counted apart. «a piece of cake» can mean «very easy».