Definition of Battenberg cake
chiefly British
: a rectangular cake that is usually covered with marzipan and that is assembled from two differently colored sponge cakes so that a slice of the cake has a checkered pattern … checkerboard Battenburg cakes coated with marzipan … — Toronto Star, 18 May 2005 … the retro pink and yellow checker board Battenberg cake is delightfully finger sized. — Marketwire, 29 June 2010
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Origin and Etymology of battenberg cake
probably after the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the ducal house of Hesse-Darmstadt, members of whom established careers in Britain or married into the British royal family (after Battenberg, a town in Hesse, Germany)
First Known Use: 1903
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