Forbidden cake?

I was in the shower this evening pondering life as I scrubbed it off at the same time, and I got to thinking (I do my most profound thinking while in the shower, btw) about defying idioms. There's one in particular that I've been at odds with lately, namely the one that goes "You can't have your cake and eat it too."

Why not?

I know this idiom refers the choices and sacrifices that must be made when we come to those penultimate crossroads in life, but I've come to despise the times when people use this phrase defensively or haphazardly in a debate. Who honestly thinks this could even possibly applies to every situation?

Yes, I will agree there are those situations that exist where you cannot have it both ways (i.e. simultaneously dating more than one individual for a substantial length of time, for the lack of a less pitiful example). And barring matters of the heart, where you really can't have it both ways, any other supposed "tough choice" where merely presents itself to me as a challenge with a less obvious solution just WAITING to be solved.

Maybe I'm taking this too lightly. Am I'm neglecting those situations where there are more than one scheming individual involved? No, no, no...I thought of those as well. In those pinches, it's just your job to out think the others. To very loosely reference "The Art of War", you must come to know you enemy if you are to defeat him. If you're as good as you think you are, you'll be able to jerry-rig the situation to your favor.

In light of the way this argument has turned, it almost seems like if you want your cake and to enjoy it, you need to work for it. Maybe it's really suppose to mean, you can have your cake after you've put in your time, have gone through the lengths to learn to make it correctly, being the mindful creator. And once it's reached its perfection, through trial and error, you'll have something worth enjoying.

...that is, unless you've become sick of testing cake and the frustration that can come piggy-backed with this ordeal, then in that case, you really would have your cake, but couldn't eat it, as well....

hmm....