Meanings
- uncountableA fee levied by a restaurant on customers who bring their own cake (such as a birthday cake) rather than buying one on the premises.
Corkage fee: $10.00 per 750 ml bottle; "cakeage" (if you bring your own birthday cake) $2.25 per person.
2003, Kathleen Thompson Hill, Napa Valley: Land of Golden Vines, page 1712 more examples
Large groups are easily accommodated, though be warned, a 'cakeage' fee of $1.50 per head will be charged to birthday revellers.
2010, Lisa Dempstere, The Australian Veg Food Guide 2011, page 191"[r]estaurants often charge customers to cut and plate the cake. Sometimes they add a scoop of ice cream. The practice has come to be called cakeage. It’s a play on corkage, the fee a restaurant levies to open a bottle of wine brought by the customer."
2016 January 13, Kim Severson, “Restaurants Counter Outside Cakes With Cakeage Fees”, in The New York Times
Origin
From cake + -age, modelled on corkage.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
cakeage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cakeage
“cakeage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cakeage. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cakeage,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cakeage.
Source: cakeage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.