On top of the all the words in English, and their strange spellings, there are all the phrases Americans use informally. These casual sayings are called idioms, and learning them is important for fully understanding ‘American’ English. Luckily, we’re here to help you learn some common idioms.

Today, we’re going to cover idioms which make reference to baking. Why? Because I’m hungry!

Easy as pie: This phrase refers to “something easily accomplished or dealt with.” We all know just how easy it is to eat a slice of pie. A similar phrase, with the same meaning, is a piece of cake.

As American as apple pie: Apple pie is seen as a stereotypically American food, so this idiom means “embodying traditional values; particularly American ideals.”

Cookie cutter: This idiom uses the baking implement metaphorically to refer to “something mass-produced or lacking any distinguishing characteristics.” It seems to be most commonly used in association with buildings, as in “cookie-cutter apartments” or “cookie-cutter homes.”

That’s the way the cookie crumbles: This means “that is the way it is” and came into use in the 20th century.

The icing on the cake: Both this and cherry on top refer to “an additional benefit to something that is already good,” although they can now also used ironically to mean the opposite of this. So why are these common analogies? Essentially, because: cake is good; cake with icing is an improvement; cake with icing and a cherry is infinitely better. 

To take the cake: The phrase is used in American English to refer to something that is the most remarkable of its kind; it can also be used ironically to refer to something that is foolish or annoying. In British English to take the biscuit is used instead.

To have your cake and eat it too: You can’t enjoy two desirable but mutually exclusive things, or so Confucius says. This idiom’s first recorded English use in the OED is from John Heywood’s Proverbs, Epigrams, and Miscellanies (1562).