COLLOCATIONS:
*Verb + …
make/bake a cake
Let’s make a cake for his birthday.
decorate a cake
We decorated the cake with strawberries and cream.
ice a cake British English, frost a cake American English (=cover a cake with fine sugar mixed with a liquid): (= phủ một chiếc bánh với đường mịn trộn với chất lỏng)
She iced her own wedding cake.
ice /aɪs/ verb [transitive] especially British English
to cover a cake with icing (=a mixture made of liquid and very fine sugar) SYN frost American English → icing
*Adj/n + …
TYPES OF CAKE
a birthday/Christmas/wedding cake (=a special cake for a birthday etc)
Lucy had twelve candles on her birthday cake.
a home-made cake
Home-made cakes are much nicer than bought ones.
a fruit cake (=one with dried fruit in it)
Fruit cakes keep for quite a long time.
a sponge cake (=one made from flour, butter, sugar, and eggs): một chiếc bánh xốp (= một cái làm từ bột mì, bơ, đường và trứng)
It’s best to eat sponge cakes on the day you make them.
sponge /spʌndʒ/ ●●○ noun
4 [countable, uncountable] British English a light cake made from flour, sugar, butter, and eggs
a Victoria sponge
a chocolate/lemon etc cake (=a sponge cake with a chocolate etc flavour)
She’d baked a chocolate cake for me.
a cream cake (=one with thick cream inside it): một chiếc bánh kem (= một cái có lớp kem dày bên trong)
I’ll get fat if I eat any more cream cakes.
PHRASES
a piece/slice of cake
Would you like a slice of cake?
a cake recipe
Do you have any good cake recipes?
a cake tin British English, a cake pan American English (=that you bake a cake in)
Use a 20 cm cake tin.
a cake shop
There’s a very good cake shop in the market.
cake mix (=a mixture that you buy in a packet and use for making a cake): bột làm bánh
If I’m feeling lazy, I sometimes use a cake mix.
COMMON ERRORS
► Don’t say ‘cook a cake’. Say make a cake or bake a cake.
IDIOMS
go/sell like hot cakes
to sell quickly or in great numbers
bán nhanh hoặc với số lượng lớn
have your cake and eat it (British English)
(also have your cake and eat it too North American English, British English)
to have the advantages of something without its disadvantages; to have both things that are available
có những lợi thế của một cái gì đó mà không có nhược điểm của nó; có cả hai thứ có sẵn
the icing on the cake
(US English also the frosting on the cake)
something extra and not essential that is added to an already good situation or experience and that makes it even better
một cái gì đó thêm và không cần thiết được thêm vào một tình huống hoặc kinh nghiệm tốt và điều đó làm cho nó thậm chí còn tốt hơn
It’s an added bonus—the icing on the cake.
a piece of cake
(informal) a thing that is very easy to do
một việc rất dễ làm
a slice/share of the cake (British English)
(North American English a piece/slice/share of the pie)
a share of the available money or benefits that you believe you have a right to
một phần tiền hoặc lợi ích có sẵn mà bạn tin rằng bạn có quyền
Scotland is demanding a larger slice of the national cake.
take the cake (especially North American English)
(British English also take the biscuit)
(informal) to be the most surprising, annoying, etc. thing that has happened or that somebody has done
điều đáng ngạc nhiên nhất, gây phiền nhiễu, v.v. đã xảy ra hoặc ai đó đã làm