I found the phrase “I don’t care how you cut it, the brother just can’t bake the cake,” in the Maureen Dowd’s article in New York Times (December 10), titled “Fire and Ice,” that compares the character of GOP Presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich and President Obama.
In this article, there was the following line referring to the skirmish between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in the recent presidential debate:
“Nutty Newt is dancing a fandango on Mitt Romney’s head even though not a single hair has gone askew. As Michael Steele, the former Republican National Committee chief eloquently summed up the Romney free fall on MSNBC, “I don’t care how you cut it; the brother just can’t bake the cake.”
“Nutty Newt is dancing a fandango on Mitt Romney’s head even though not a single hair has gone askew. As Michael Steele, the former Republican National Committee chief eloquently summed up the Romney free fall on MSNBC, “I don’t care how you cut it; the brother just can’t bake the cake.”
I don’t understand what this ending line means. I guess Steele said “It’s up to Romney how to respond to Newt’ charge (or cook Newt) in the debate, but he didn’t know how to finish Newt off,” but I’m not sure.
What does “I don’t care how you cut it, the brother just can’t bake the cake,” exactly mean? Is “(Somebody) bake the cake” an idiom or a popular set of words?
