simnel cake a rich fruit cake, now typically with a marzipan covering and decoration, usually eaten at Easter or on the middle or fourth Sunday in Lent, on which the severities of the Lenten fast are traditionally relaxed.

Simnel was originally (in Middle English) a kind of bread or bun made of fine flour; the word comes via Old French from Latin simila or Greek semidalis ‘fine flour’.

simnel cake Fruit cake with a layer of almond paste on top and sometimes another baked in the middle. Originally baked for Mothering Sunday, now normally eaten at Easter.