Where did this come from?

[kaonohcg01]

Where and why the phrase "You can't have your cake and eat it too?"

[Ice.Maiden]

I take it to mean that you can't have everything at once.

[Quizmonster]

'You cannot eat your cake and have it' was already listed in these exact words as a proverb in the 1500s, so clearly it was around even before that.
Many people claim they just don't "get it" but perhaps they are misunderstanding a somewhat old-fashioned use of English. It simply means that once (a) the eating of the cake is completed, then (b) still having it is excluded.
Pretty straightforward, really.

[Clanad]

To illuminate Q's apodictically sapient objet trouv� only slightly, the quote inferred is from John Heywood's 'A dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue' (1546) and reads thus: "'Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?' John Ray's 'A collection of English Proverbs' (1670) included this version: "You can't eat your cake and have your cake". Other's followed, including the modern rendering: "You can't have your cake and eat it too", from The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993), along with it's meaning... One can't use something up and still have it to enjoy, as previously stated...

[beccac2901]

i might be completely wrong but i thought Queen Elizabeth I or Queen Mary said this phrase?? Im probably wrong but I'm sure it was a queen who said it! x

[Quizmonster]

Perhaps you're thinking of Marie Antoinette, Beccac, who reportedly suggested that the French lower orders - who had no bread - should "eat cake".

[jno]

yes, modern people say 'You can't have your cake and eat it', which is nonsense - it's perfectly possible to do that, in that order. But you can't eat your cake and then have it.

I'd check it in the dictionary, only Clanad seems to have swallowed it...

[VS Prasad]

From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman:
"You can't have your cake and eat it too -- One can't use something up and still have it to enjoy. This proverb was recorded in the book of proverbs by John Heywood in 1546, and is first attested in the United States in the 1742 'Colonial Records of Georgia' in 'Original Papers, 1735-1752.' The adage is found in varying forms: You can't eat your cake and have it too. You can't have everything and eat it too; Eat your cake and have the crumbs in bed with you, etc. ..."

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/7/mes sages/470.html