Success is just cream on the cake
Posted: November 2, 2014 Filed under: cake, FOOD | Tags: congruent conflations, cream of the crop, expressions, humor, icing on the cake, language, malaphor, malaphors, mixed idioms, Sting, Twenty Feet from Stardom, words 3 CommentsThis malaphor, spoken by Sting in the documentary “Twenty Feet from Stardom” (an excellent film by the way), involves the phrases “icing on the cake” (something extra on a successful endeavor) and “cream of the crop” (finest or best). I don’t believe “cream on the cake” is a British expression, but please send me your comments over the pond about this.
It is similar to a previously posted malaphor and the tag for this website, “cream of the cake.” Here is the entire quote from the movie:
“Real musicians, there’s a spiritual component to
what they do…. Success is just cream on the cake.
There’s this idea that you can just go on American
Idol and become a star, but you may bypass the
spiritual… and if you bypass that, then your success
will be wafer-thin.” Sting
Thanks to Barry Eigen for hearing this one and sending it in!
That would just be gravy on the icing
Posted: October 6, 2014 Filed under: cake, FOOD, gravy | Tags: congruent conflation, expressions, humor, icing on the cake, language, malaphor, malaphors, mixed idioms, the rest is just gravy, words 1 CommentThe yuck factor is high on this one, but it’s a great malaphor. It was said by someone who was discussing the possibility of getting more money than she anticipated. This is a congruent conflation of “icing on the cake” and “the rest is just gravy”, both meaning an extra enhancement. Perhaps this one describes a little too much enhancement. Coincidentally, I received this malaphor from two people last week who don’t know each other so kudos to Deb Rose and Jonathan Ogle for sending this one in!
It’s like the cherry on top of the cake
Posted: June 5, 2014 Filed under: cake, cherry, FOOD | Tags: Animal Planet, blended idioms, cherry on top, congruent conflation, expressions, humor, icing on the cake, language, malaphor, malaphors, mixed idiom, treehouse masters, words 5 CommentsThis one was heard on the Animal Planet tv show, Treehouse Masters. Daryl, the foreman, was referring to a door on the treehouse that looked like a sarcophagus. It is a congruent conflation of “icing on the cake” and “cherry on top”, both meaning an extra enhancement to something. There are certainly cherries that appear on the top of some cakes, but not as common as sundaes. In fact there is a Quebec idiom, “la cerise sur le sundae”, also with the same meaning but the cherry is on the sundae, not cake. A shout out to my high school buddy, Marti Fenimore, for sending this one in!
It’s as easy as falling off a piece of cake
Posted: January 1, 2013 Filed under: ACTION, cake, fall, FOOD, pie | Tags: blended idioms, conflations, easy as falling off a log, easy as pie, expressions, malaphors, mixed idioms, piece of cake, words 2 Comments
English: Wedding cake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a mash up of “it’s as easy as falling off a log”, “easy as pie”, and “it’s a piece of cake”, all meaning something very easy. This is a great example of a congruent malaphor, when two or more root expressions have the same or similar meaning. These kinds of malaphors are almost always understood by the listener because the idioms express the same thought.
Malaphors 
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