Meaning: Easy, requires little effort
You might think, "Baking a cake? I can’t bake a cake – there’s nothing easy about that." But this meaning goes all the way back to the 1800s in America, and it reveals one of the country's darker chapters. Cakes were given out as prizes during competitions in which African slaves would circle around a cake. The one who walked with the most “grace” won the prize. Since walking in a circle was relatively easy, the term “piece of cake” or "cake walk" was coined.
