"Piece of Cake" vs "Easy as Pie" — Which Came First?
English has two dessert idioms for "that was easy," and most people treat them as twins. They're not. One is a Victorian American, the other showed up between the world wars — and they arrived at the same meaning from completely different kitchens.
Pie wins by about fifty years. "Easy as pie" was in American newspapers by the 1880s, evolved from "as easy as eating pie." "Piece of cake" doesn't appear in print until 1936, in an Ogden Nash poem, and went global as RAF pilot slang in World War II.
| Round | Easy as pie 🥧 | Piece of cake 🍰 |
|---|---|---|
| First in print | 1880s, American newspapers | 1936, Ogden Nash poem |
| Original form | "as easy as eating pie" | "life's a piece of cake" |
| Popularized by | Everyday American speech | RAF pilots, WWII |
| The logic | Eating pie is effortless | Cake = prize won easily |
| Verdict | Pie is older; cake traveled further. | |
Team Pie: the 1880s
The pie phrase starts as a longer, more honest expression: "as easy as eating pie." That version explains itself — nobody ever claimed baking a pie was easy, but eating one requires no skill whatsoever. American papers of the 1880s use it casually, which means readers already knew it; phrases are always older than their first printing.
Over time the "eating" wore off, the way idioms shed their explanatory parts, leaving the slightly absurd "easy as pie" — a phrase that baffles anyone who has ever fought with a pastry crust. The confusion is the fossil record of the missing word.
Team Cake: 1936 and the RAF
Cake's entry is unusually precise for idiom history. The first known printed use belongs to American poet Ogden Nash:
"Her picture's in the papers now, / And life's a piece of cake." — Ogden Nash, The Primrose Path, 1936
Then came the war, and with it the phrase's great amplifier: Royal Air Force slang. Among RAF crews, an easy mission was "a piece of cake" — the expression shows up constantly in wartime memoirs and squadron talk. Pilots scattered it across continents, and by 1945 the phrase belonged to everyone.
Why cake means victory
There's a reason cake specifically became the easy-win dessert. In 19th-century America, the cakewalk was a real contest: couples competed in elaborate strutting promenades, and the winners took home — a cake. The contests gave English both "takes the cake" and "cakewalk," and planted the idea of cake as a prize you stroll to. "Piece of cake" grew in that soil: not just easy like eating, but easy like winning.
So the two idioms aren't twins after all. Pie is about effortless consumption; cake is about effortless triumph. Your mouth can't tell the difference, but the history can.
If you enjoy phrase showdowns with a clear winner, try "nest egg" vs "rainy day fund" — two savings idioms with very different birth stories — or see all ten everyday fossils in 10 idioms you use daily. Citations for both phrases are collected at the Phrase Finder and in Merriam-Webster.
Quick FAQ
Which phrase is older?
"Easy as pie" — 1880s America, versus 1936 for "piece of cake." Roughly a fifty-year gap.
Why does pie mean easy if pies are hard to make?
The idiom was originally "as easy as eating pie." The eating disappeared over time; the confusion it left behind is normal idiom wear-and-tear.
Who wrote "piece of cake" first?
Ogden Nash, 1936. RAF pilots then spread it worldwide during WWII, where an easy mission was "a piece of cake."
Is "cakewalk" related?
Thematically, yes — 19th-century cakewalk contests awarded a literal cake, giving English "takes the cake" and "cakewalk" and cementing cake as the dessert of easy victory.
Want the next story?
One idiom out of the jar, every Friday — its real origin in under two minutes of reading. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
We respect your privacy. Privacy Policy.
The IdiomJar team researches phrase origins from dictionaries, digitized newspaper archives, and the work of etymologists — and clearly labels anything that's folklore rather than fact. Read more about how we work.