Cake

Cake is a solid block used as food, and appears as a sponge base topped with white frosting and cherries (or other red substance). It is the only edible block - all other food items must be held in the hand and right-clicked to consume them. Cake cannot be eaten while being held - it must be placed on a suitable block first.

Cake consists of six slices in total, and a slice is removed each time the cake is used (by right-clicking). More than one player can eat from a single cake. Breaking the cake block or the block underneath it will destroy the cake and not drop anything.

Each use of a cake restores, and it may be used up to six times for a total of.

Crafting
After the cake is crafted, the three empty buckets go straight into the player's inventory, rather than staying on the crafting table. If there is no space in the inventory, they will remain on the crafting table.

The Achievement "The Lie" is also rewarded the first time cake is crafted.

Advantages

 * Cake can be used repeatedly in SMP, they can be shared by several players as a feast item.
 * Despite its complexity, cake is technically a renewable resource.
 * Cake can be eaten instantly without any eating animation and without switching the currently selected item.
 * Cake restores six units of the hunger bars total (one hunger bar a usage).
 * Cake can be used as mounting for a TNT cannon and produces a range greater than that of a half slab

Disadvantages

 * Cake requires several different items to craft: sugar, wheat, eggs and three buckets of milk. In addition, a crafting table is required to use the recipe. As such, it takes some time to make a cake.
 * Once cake is placed it cannot be retrieved.
 * Cakes need to be placed to be eaten, which means they cannot be eaten in places where one cannot build (e.g. spawn protection).
 * If you only eat part of a cake, you'll have to come back to that exact spot to eat the rest of it later on.
 * Cake does not stack, so you will be unable to carry too much of it without sacrificing a large amount of inventory space (as of TU7 on Minecraft Xbox 360, cake does stack).
 * Cake has a low saturation level, causing you to become hungry again in a very short amount of time.

Achievements
The name of the achievement is a reference to the internet meme "The Cake is a Lie", which originated from Valve's game, Portal.

History
Notch stated if Minecraft won the 2010 Indie of the Year Awards, he would add cake to Minecraft.

Trivia

 * In real-life metric units, the cake is 875 mm square and 437.5 mm tall.
 * One slice of the cake is 145.8¯3 mm thick.
 * Placing a cake makes the same sound as placing wool.
 * Cake makes no sound when eaten.
 * When cake is placed on ice, walking on the cake will let you slip and slide as if you were standing on the ice, like other half-blocks.
 * Cake, like all transparent blocks, will not prevent chests from opening beneath it.
 * It is possible to place cake on top of cake by placing a cake on the ground, then placing another cake on the side of a block above and to the side of the first cake, similar to placing torches on a chest. Eating the lower cake completely will cause the upper cake to disappear, same as mining out the block of cake it is sitting on.
 * Placing cake on a half-block will cause it to 'levitate' as if it had been placed on a normal block.
 * Since cake is only 7/8 blocks wide, it is possible to stand on the edge of a block beneath a cake. It is possible to perform this using a chest or a cactus as well, but it is not recommended since physical contact with cacti causes the player to take damage.
 * Cake cannot be destroyed by lava or water.
 * Cake can destroy falling sand and falling gravel if placed under them, similar to a torch.
 * Cake exists in two instances: as a block, and as an item. The item is what you receive when crafting, and does not stack. The block used to be obtainable through inventory editing or using the pick block tool in creative and 64 could be stacked, like most other blocks. However as of 1.7 the cake block cannot be in your inventory.
 * Cake is rectangular when placed but is circular in the inventory.
 * Cake currently holds the record with pistons for having the most complex crafting chain and recipe in game, requiring 9 separate items to be crafted in order to make it, as well as 4 different items to make the cake itself.
 * Cake vanishes when a piston extends into the block where the cake is.
 * Cake has a data value range of 0-15, but the only way to obtain 7-15 is via a map editor.
 * When the data values of 7-15 are placed in a map, the cake becomes negative in appearance.
 * It is impossible to stand on a cake block with a data value of 12 or above. This is because the 'negative' cake block requires the player to be in contact with both edges of the block simultaneously.
 * Cake with data values of 7-15 can still be eaten, but will only fill one hunger icon before disappearing.
 * You can place cake on top of a bed, and while sleeping, the cake shows on your screen as if it were on top of your head.
 * Cake is thinner than a slab, and thus is usable with fences and a piston loop to make a walkway.