I was just reading a news article where they used the expression “it’s like the icing on the cake”.
Which got me to thinking.
Who the hell eats cake with no icing???
The expression “the icing on the cake” as far as I know means something extra and unexpected in addition to something else which you already knew you were going to get anyway.
It’s like the icing on the cake.
Except it isn’t.
Because when somebody orders a piece of cake they already know full well that they’re also going to get the icing.
It’s just a part of cake.
So getting icing on your cake isn’t really anything special.
It’s merely a part of what makes cake so special to begin with.
So it isn’t really the icing on the cake at all, you see.
Now, if you ordered a piece of cake and they unexpectedly also brought you a free scoop of ice cream with it, now that would be something special.
THAT would be the icing on the cake.