Battenberg cake

noun Bat·ten·berg cake \ ˈba-tᵊn-ˌbərg- \

variants: or Battenburg cake play \ˈba-tᵊn-ˌbərg-\

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)

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1903

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year