“All icing and no cupcake,” proclaimed my mom recently during one of our daily phone calls. It caught me so off guard that frankly I don’t even remember to who she was referring, or what we were even talking about.
“Where did THAT came from?!?!”
She explained that it was something HER grandmother, that would be my GREAT grandmother, used to say!
Not only had I never heard my 92-year-old mother say that before, I’d never even heard the expression period.
So, I went to the Google box and found a similar Urban Dictionary entry for the term “all frosting, no cupcake” dating back to April 17, 2010. It would seem that beckymay74 was way ahead of me!
The simple definition, according to the UD (is that a legitimate acronym?) and Becky, is “a girl who looks hot on the outside but has absolutely no personality (i.e. Paris Hilton is all frosting, no cupcake) - #frosting #cupcake #airhead #boring #spoiled.”
Somehow, I find it hard to believe, not to mention just a little bit troubling, that is what my great grandmother had in mind when she uttered those infamous words. After all, Paris Hilton isn’t that old, is she?
I prefer to think of it more in terms of the old “all hat, no cattle”, which is a derisive description of someone who might have the look but lacks the goods either financially, intellectually or substantively.
All hat is a familiar expression that I probably use way too often, but one that will now ABSOLUTELY take a backseat to my new cupcake reference.
After all, it has been in the family now nearly 100 years!
SOURCES:
Image = https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/