Cake is a sweet baked food made by mixing ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, and butter, then baking the mixture in an oven until it becomes soft and fluffy. Birthday cakes, wedding cakes, chocolate cakes, and cupcakes are all types of cake. Some cakes have frosting spread on top, while others are enjoyed plain or dusted with powdered sugar.

Cakes have been special treats for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians made early versions using honey as a sweetener. Today, people serve cakes at celebrations because they're festive and delicious, but also because sharing cake together marks important moments: birthdays, weddings, graduations, and holidays.

The word cake can also describe anything shaped like a flat, round disk. A soap cake is a bar of soap. A cake of ice is a large block of frozen water. Mud that dries on your shoes might cake on them, forming a hard, crusty layer. When something is described as caked with dirt, it means covered with a thick, dried-on layer.

You might hear someone say “that's a piece of cake,” meaning something is very easy to do. If your friend says the spelling test was a piece of cake, they mean it was simple and they weren't worried about it at all.