Cake branched out to the screen when he landed a guest spot in the British TV comedy series Press Gang in 1993.
After appearing in episodes of Frank Stubbs Promotes and Goodnight Sweetheart, Cake was cast as Gareth in the BBC series Degrees of Error (1995), opposite Beth Goddard, Julian Glover and Phyllida Law.
He was also cast in the TV films Nightlife (1996, with Katrin Cartlidge and Jane Horrocks), The Girl (1996) and the 1996 pilot episode of Wings (a planned remake of the American show of the same title, with Una Stubbs).
Cake next worked in Cows (1997), played Jack Favell in the 1997 Anglo-German miniseries Rebecca, based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, and portrayed Peter Templer in a TV miniseries adaptation of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time (1997), which starred James Purefoy, Simon Russell Beale and Paul Rhys.
He revisited the stage with work in Baby Doll (2000), an adaptation of the film of the same name by Tennessee Williams, and was handed the Barclays Best Actor Award for his performance.
Terrible's House of Horrible (2001), co-starred with Lara Belmont and Teresa Churcher in the television thriller The Swap (2002), starred as Jack Wellington in the short-lived Fox series The American Embassy (2002), and was cast as Andrea in the British film The One and Only (2002).
He was also cast as a gladiator named Tyrannus in the ABC historical TV series Empire, which ran from 28 June 2005 to 26 July 2005.
He appeared in an episode of Extras called "Sir Ian McKellen" (2006) and played Marshall Crawford in the TV film The Mastersons of Manhattan (2007).
He then performed in Coriolanus (2006) at London's Shakespeare's Globe, and was cast in Cymbeline (2007) at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City.
He had a two episode role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, alongside his real life wife Julianne Nicholson.
The next year, he appeared as Bishop in the ABC TV film Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas, starring Jodelle Ferland, Charlie McDermott and Hal Holbrook.