What's the point of having cake if you can't eat it?

Give it to the poor.

I’ve got 4, one pound fruit cakes in the basement storage area in case of disaster.

All my life I’ve understood this proverb only in a context, and even then, not entirely. So, prompted by your question, I looked it up:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can’t have your cake and eat it (too) is a popular English idiomatic proverb or figure of speech. Many people misunderstand the meanings of “have” and “eat” as used here but still understand the proverb in its entirety and intent and use it in this form. Some people feel this form of the proverb is incorrect and illogical and instead prefer “you can’t eat your cake and have it (too)”, which is in fact closer to the original form of the proverb but very rare today. Other rare variants use “keep” instead of “have”.

The proverb literally means “you cannot both possess your cake and eat it”. It can be used to say that one cannot or should not have or want more than one deserves or can handle, or that one cannot or should not try to have two incompatible things. The proverb’s meaning is similar to the phrases “you can’t have it both ways” and “you can’t have the best of both worlds.” Conversely, in the positive sense, it refers to “having it both ways” or “having the best of both worlds.”

I just want to eat it.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room That makes a lot more sense; I don’t think I had ever thought of it like that. Meaning that you want to both keep it intact and eat it at the same time, which makes more sense than wanting to own a cake and eat it (which is the logical next step). I used to just write off this proverb along with the bastardized “the proof is in the pudding”.

It means I can’t have a husband and a boyfriend, the best of both worlds…lol

I never understood the saying either. I’ll usually say you want to have your cake but not pay for it. LOL.

I’d rather eat it than have it…unless it’s fruitcake.

Best to keep the cake in the frizzer, they give out awards ya know?

@ucme keeps escaping from my frizzer.

I see no point.

In the awesome words of Natalie Reed:

“I’d say it’s about trying to have our cake and eat it too, but I never really understood that expression. Why wouldn’t I eat my cake? Isn’t the whole point of cake to eat it?

It’s like trying to have our fireworks display, box of puppies and golden robotic dance troupe and EAT THEM TOO.”

@Plucky is my mama & i’m her babba…I fink

I can appreciate the idea behind this saying, but whoever thought it up maybe should’ve sat with it a bit longer before releasing it into posterity. I mean, for a short while you have to “have” your cake while you’re eating it, right? Just seems like a half-baked analogy to me (no pun intended).

Is this a question about Michael Douglas blaming his throat cancer on oral sex?

You could eat half of it and freeze the other half. Then don’t eat the frozen one until you bake another. You’ll never run out of cake and always be able to eat your cake and have it too.

One cannot Have there cake and eat it too because IF one were to eat it it would be gone.
That I beleive is the meaning. Trying to have the impossible.

@filmfann He only smoked to get rid of the taste of pussy from his mouth.

Sorry, I thought the question said Cate, not Cake.