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For certain types of bread-like foods, one only washes and makes HaMotzi when eating a sufficiently fixed quantity. Suppose you make a Mezonos a small amount of cake, and after finishing it you realize that you are still hungry and want to eat a lot more.
Do you eat it under the coverage of your first Mezonos? Do you say an Al HaMichya or Birkat HaMazon?
How do you say an Al HaMichya on what you would consider a full meal? How do you bench on something you made a Mezonos on?
אִם מִתְּחִלָּה הָיָה בְּדַעְתּוֹ לֶאֱכוֹל רַק מְעַט, וּבֵרַךְ בּוֹרֵא מִינֵי מְזוֹנוֹת, וְאַחַר כָּךְ נִמְלַךְ לֶאֱכוֹל שִׁעוּר קְבִיעַת סְעוּדָּה, אִם בָּזֶה שֶׁהוּא רוֹצֶה לֶאֱכֹל עוֹד אֵין בּוֹ שִׁעוּר קְבִיעַת סְעוּדָּה אֶלָּא בְּצֵרוּף מַה שֶּׁאָכַל קֹדֶם, אוֹכֵל כָּךְ וּמְבָרֵךְ אַחַר כָּךְ בִּרְכַּת הַמָּזוֹן.
In normal cases HaMotzee and Birkas HaMazon go hand-in-hand, but as DoubleAA pointed out, there are exceptions – there's no actual rule that says "can't do birkas unless you said hamotzee." In this case, it would be a second Mezonos (if the second helping of cake itself is not hamotzee-worthy), then Birkas HaMazon after the sum total.
