I Was Told There Would Be Cake/Playing With
- Basic Trope: Cake is used as a reward for doing something or going somewhere.
- Played Straight: Alice promises Bob that she'll bake him a big honkin' chocolate cake if he takes care of an item on the Honey-Do List.
- Exaggerated: Alice promises Bob that she'll not only bake him a cake, but she'll throw him a party if he completes an item on the list.
- Inverted: Alice promises Bob that she'll never bake cake for him again if he takes care of an item on the Honey-Do List.
- Justified: Bob will do anything for cake, and Alice is using that to her advantage to get what she wants.
- 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.
- Double Subverted: Bob completes the task, and heads into the kitchen to find that Alice has baked him a "Thanks, honey!" cake.
- Made Darker and Edgier: 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 herself in search of revenge.
- Made Lighter and Softer: Cake (and hugs) are the standard reward for good deeds in the land, and rainbows shine whenever someone is rewarded with cake.
- Made Bloodier and Gorier: Alice is a vampire, and bakes Bob a cake as a reward...but he discovers its ingredients include those boys from down the street. A flashback shows how she acquired the "ingredients," in all her gory glory.
- Made Hotter and Sexier: The cake turns out to be big enough for Alice to pop out of...nude. Bob is speechless.
- Parodied: Bob's reward for losing weight is...cake.
- Lampshaded: "Fix the leaky pipes, and I'll bake a cake for you!"
- Averted: Alice makes no promises, explicitly or otherwise, of cake.
- Enforced: "Bob needs motivation."
- 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.
- Defied: Alice doesn't believe in using food as a reward.
- Discussed: "That Bob! He'll do anything for cake!"
- Conversed: "But what if The Cake Is a Lie?"
- Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
- Played For Drama: The Cake Is a Lie
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