Basic Trope: Cake is used as a reward for doing something or going somewhere.
- Straight: Alice promises Bob that she'll bake him a delicious chocolate cake if he takes care of an item on the Honey-Do List.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice compiles a list of tasks that will involve redecorating the house, reupholstering the car, using the car in a drive by shooting to deal with a mobster who made a threat on her brother's life, traveling to the world's deepest cave to recover an ancient prophecy, and going to a distant land to slay a dragon terrorizing a village, for which Bob will receive a tray of chocolate cupcakes. And if he does a really good job, she'll add cherry frosting.
- The cake is massive and beautifully decorated.
- Alice rewards Bob with a selection of cakes of every size and style.
- Downplayed:
- Alice promises Bob a cupcake in return for an easy chore, such as taking out the trash.
- Alice rewards Bob with a few cake crumbs.
- Justified: Bob will do anything for cake, and Alice is using that to her advantage to get what she wants.
- Inverted:
- Alice punishes Bob with cake.
- Alice rewards Bob by not baking any cake, perhaps because he wants the kitchen for his own use.
- Subverted:
- Alice promises Bob that she'll give him some kind of reward, but it's never stated what the reward is.
- Alternatively, Alice promises to reward Bob for completing a task on the Honey-Do List. He completes it, but she never gives him any kind of reward, not even a thank you, let alone cake.
- Bob comes in after completing a task to find cake cooling, but it turns out that the cake is for a church bake sale. Alice (in sexy lingerie) says she has something better for him upstairs.
- Alice is a Lethal Chef, so when she promises Bob a cake for his work, he refuses for the sake of his stomach.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob completes the task, and heads into the kitchen to find that Alice has baked him a "Thanks, honey!" cake.
- Alice and Bob's neighbor, Claire, knows that Bob worked hard only for Alice to refuse to reward him. She decides to bake him a cake.
- A bigger cake is waiting in their bedroom.
- While Bob refuses to work for Alice because she's a Lethal Chef, he will happily do chores for neighbors in exchange for cake.
- Parodied:
- Cake and hugs are the standard reward for good deeds in the land, and rainbows shine whenever someone is rewarded with cake.
- Alice rewarding Bob with "cake" was a euphemism that Bob took at face value.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes Alice offers Bob a cake for doing things. Other times, she just points out she's his wife and that should be reason enough.
- Averted: No one makes any promises, explicitly or otherwise, of cake.
- Enforced: "Bob is a typical Lazy Husband, right? Let's have him do chores only if Alice offers to bake him a cake."
- Lampshaded: "Fix the leaky pipes, and I'll bake a cake for you!" "Thanks, Alice. Your cakes rock!"
- Invoked: Alice has tried everything to get Bob off the couch and fixing stuff, and decides to try dangling this carrot in front of him.
- Exploited: Bob stops doing tasks for Alice when he learns that Claire asks easier favors and bakes better cakes. A Toilet Seat Divorce may or may not follow.
- Defied:
- Alice doesn't believe in using food as a reward, and as a result, Bob never helps her out.
- Bob refuses to work, even for a cake.
- Discussed: "Bob will do anything for cake. Why doesn't Alice use that to her advantage?" "How would she do that?" "By bribing him with cake. You know, chores for cake!"
- Conversed: "That Bob! He'll do anything for Alice. Or rather, he'll do anything for Alice's cakes." "I know, right? She must bake the best cakes in the universe!"
- Plotted A Good Waste: Not applicable. (This trope is always intentional.)
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob's reward for losing weight is a cake.
- The cake turns out to be big enough for Alice to pop out of ... nude, of course. Bob is speechless... Because she ruined the cake.
- Played For Drama:
- The Cake Is a Lie
- Bob didn't tell Alice about the fact that he's diabetic and depressed and that to him, the cake was just an elaborate way of committing suicide while saddling her with guilt. She falls for it, but doesn't figure out the corpse was the result of her cake. She suspects someone else of foul play, and becomes a darker being in search of revenge.
- Alice is a vampire, and bakes Bob a cake whose ingredients include those boys from down the street. A flashback shows how she acquired the "ingredients," in all her gory glory.
- Implied: After doing a good deed, Bob is seen with frosting on his face.
- Deconstructed: Bob's association of food with rewards causes him to overeat.
- Reconstructed: Bob eats sugar very rarely, making the cake even more of a reward.
You'll get a cake if you do the chores back at I Was Told There Would Be Cake.
