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Reader question: Please explain “piece of cake” in this sentence: This camp isn’t designed to run you into the ground, but it will not be a piece of cake either. My comments: To paraphrase, this camp is not very difficult – you won’t be so exhausted at the end of each day that you’d sink to the floor in a helpless heap – but it won’t be easy, either. In other words, it won’t be a cake walk. Indeed, “cake walk” and “piece of cake” have the same root in origin. As I wrote in Who Took the Cake (September 27, 2011), the “cake” is the winner’s prize for winning a dance competition. In colonial times America, slaves do the walk (dance) at get-togethers for amusement and slave owners used to give out a large piece of cake to the winning couple. Over time, in conversation, winners of competitions are often said to have taken the cake. Plus, as cakes are such a delightful item to eat – at least they were in the past, before a large portion of the populace become overweight and develop an aversion for anything fat and sweet – people also talk of easy delightful tasks as a piece of cake. The idea being, let’s be clear about it, the cake is so delicious that it never is difficult for anyone to eat it – they’d gobble it up with pleasure in no time. Again, at least this was the case in the past. Today, so many people are overweight and are on diet that they may be aghast at the sight of a piece of cake. | 
