icing on the cake

plural rare icings on the cake · plural rare icings on the cakes

1. idiomaticA thing which intensifies the appreciation of something already good, or (ironic) the regretting of something already bad.

   We went out for dinner and dancing and the icing on the cake was when my boyfriend proposed to me as we danced.

   5 more examples

   I was having a really bad day at work, but the icing on the cake was getting soaked by a car passing through a puddle.

   With such advantages as these, the superior thermal efficiency of the diesel becomes no more than the icing on the cake.

   1957 August 28, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 564

   “I'm happy right now. I don't need to test-drive a bunch of lemons to get me there. But happily ever after? That's a trip worth taking. The pièce de résistance. The crème de la crème. The—” “The icing on the cake,” Dana said. Michelle raised her glass in a toast. “Exactly.”

   2013, Alison Kent, The Icing on the Cake, Hachette UK, →ISBN

   The London School of Economics’ local government pundit, Tony Travers, has been totting up the capital’s groaning portfolio of infrastructure projects and the support given to them by the nation’s taxpayers. They include the new Elizabeth line (£14.8bn), Crossrail Two (£27bn), a possible new Heathrow (£25bn), the HS2 link in west London (£6bn), the Thames Tideway tunnel, of questionable necessity (£4.2bn), and such icings on the cake as an Olympic legacy culture park, a garden bridge for Joanna Lumley and a concert hall for Simon Rattle.

   2016 February 25, Simon Jenkins, “While London rides the Crossrail gravy train, the north is stuck in reverse”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Feb 2016

   Lewis Hamilton is eyeing a hat-trick after victories at Silverstone in the last two years – he’d become the first to do the British GP treble, all on this historically important track, and he could even leapfrog his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in the overall standings which would be the sweetest of icings on the cake at his home circuit.

   2016 July 10, Gerard Meagher, “F1: British Grand Prix – live!”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Jul 2016

   Synonyms: cherry on the cake, cherry on top, frosting on the cake