Battenberg cake

noun

Bat·​ten·​berg cake ˈba-tᵊn-ˌbərg- 

variants or Battenburg cake

ˈba-tᵊn-ˌbərg-

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

Word History

Etymology

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, in the meaning defined above

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