'You can't have your cake and eat it'
means you can't keep the cake _and_ eat it.
/pedant
(
Fido Dido,
Sat 17 Jul 2004, 1:53,
archived)
What if
you don't eat all the cake. You're still in posession of what can be referred to as "Cake". Whilst eating it.
(
The Neville What what what,
Sat 17 Jul 2004, 1:56,
archived)
You can though.
I've kept cakes for really quite a long time, and still been able to eat them. Makes no difference. Provided you don't keep them for weeks and they go all hard and difficult to digest.
(
_Felix 's school of dance and occult sciences,
Sat 17 Jul 2004, 1:56,
archived)