cakes and ale

carefree, merry and boisterous.

Theatre slang for a paltry, barely-worth-it salary — the kind of pay that covers little more than snacks. If an actor describes their wages as 'coffee and cakes,' they're being wryly self-deprecating about the gap between artistic passion and financial reward. The phrase captures the well-known reality of life in the performing arts: huge effort, great experience, terrible money. It's used with weary humour rather than genuine bitterness, and belongs to the long tradition of theatre folk laughing at their own financial predicament.

Lively and animated.

Excited mirth, wild frolic, ib.