Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A crisp bread made of fine wheat flour.
  • noun A rich fruitcake sometimes covered with almond paste and traditionally eaten at mid-Lent, Easter, and Christmas.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cake made of fine flour; a kind of rich sweet cake offered as a gift at Christmas and Easter, and especially on Mothering (Simnel) Sunday.
  • noun A variety of squash having a round flattish head with a wavy or scalloped edge, and so resembling the cake so called: now called simlin.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A kind of cake made of fine flour; a cracknel.
  • noun engraving A kind of rich plum cake, eaten especially on Mid-Lent Sunday.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun simnel cake

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fruitcake (sometimes covered with almond paste) eaten at mid-Lent or Easter or Christmas
  • noun a crisp bread of fine white flour

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French siminel, from Medieval Latin siminellus, ultimately from Latin simila, fine flour; see semolina.]

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Examples

  • The pastry, also called simnel cake, was a rich fruit cake, remembered by Robert Herrick in the lines:

    Liz Smith: A Chapter From The Mother Book 2008

  • Earlier, she and the audience got a good laugh when she asked to hear the word "simnel" in a sentence and was told: "The Wilsons had long ago lost their appetite for simnel, but luckily their poodle had much lower standards."

    unknown title 2009

  • Earlier, she and the audience got a good laugh when she asked to hear the word "simnel" in a sentence and was told: "The Wilsons had long ago lost their appetite for simnel, but luckily their poodle had much lower standards."

    unknown title 2009

  • Personally I like to stick with the old favourites but Heavenly has developed a reputation for wild and wonderful flavours such as bubble gum, pink grapefruit, Turkish delight, simnel cake an Easter special and peanut butter.

    Ten of the best UK ice-cream sellers 2011

  • A simnel cake is a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, that is covered in marzipan.

    Princess Party Cookbook Annabel Karmel 2009

  • Spring bulb flowers (daffodils, for ex.) are given to mothers, and simnel cake is made to celebrate the occasion (this cake has also become an Easter Cake of late, however).

    Simnel Cake for Laetare Sunday Ruth 2009

  • Holy Week...family arrangements for Easter with talk of travel arrangements and grandparents and simnel cake... jostling with the veiled statues in church and the Gospel bringing home the stark ghastliness of a Roman crucifixion and Christ's agony.

    Archive 2009-04-01 Joanna Bogle 2009

  • Holy Week...family arrangements for Easter with talk of travel arrangements and grandparents and simnel cake... jostling with the veiled statues in church and the Gospel bringing home the stark ghastliness of a Roman crucifixion and Christ's agony.

    Palm Sunday... Joanna Bogle 2009

  • Spring bulb flowers (daffodils, for ex.) are given to mothers, and simnel cake is made to celebrate the occasion (this cake has also become an Easter Cake of late, however).

    Archive 2009-03-01 Jessica 2009

  • Last year I made very traditional simnel cupcakes so I decided on a change.

    Easter Cupcake Nests Crazy Cupcakes 2008

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