the icing on the cake






the icing on the cake

an attractive but inessential addition or enhancement

A North American variant of this phrase is the frosting on the cake.

1996 - Independent - State education is no longer always free. The jumble sale and the summer fair, which used to provide the icing on the school cake, are now providing the staple fare.



Related Idioms :




cakes and ale

merrymaking

1601 - William Shakespeare - Twelfth Night – Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?



You can not have your cake and eat it

You can't enjoy both of two desirable but mutually exclusive alternatives – proverb



a piece of cake

something easily achieved – Informal



sell like hot cakes = go like hot cakes

be sold quickly and in large quantities.



a slice of the cake

a share of the benefits or profits – informal

1991 - Robert Reiner - Chief Constables - Perhaps it's because they're such good spenders that our slice of the cake is sufficient for all we want.



take the cake

be the most remarkable – informal

1925 - P. G. Wodehouse - Letter - Of all the poisonous, foul, ghastly places, Cannes takes the biscuit with absurd ease.

In most of these idioms cake is used as a metaphor for something pleasant or desirable.




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