[Short for Twelfth-night or Twelfth-tide cake: cf. TWELFTH B. 3.] A large cake used at the festivities of Twelfth-night, usually frosted and otherwise ornamented, and with a bean (see BEAN 6 b) or coin introduced to determine the ‘king’ or ‘queen’ of the feast.
1774. in Brand, Pop. Antiq. (1777), 206. I did not return till I had been present at drawing King and Queen, and eaten a Slice of the Twelfth Cake.
1826. Hone, Every-day Bk. [55. A citation by Brand represents the … Twelfth-night-cake to have been composed of flour, honey, ginger, and pepper.] 56. In France, the Twelfth-cake is plain, with a bean; the drawer of the slice containing the bean is king or queen.
1876. G. Meredith, Beauch. Career, xxix. A ricketty ornament like that you see on a confectioner’s twelfth-cake.
attrib. 1837. [Miss Maitland], Lett. fr. Madras (1843), 54. A queer kind of sprig made of rice and beads, like a twelfth-cake ornament.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 337/1. The house at Kenwood is quite in the twelfth-cake style—patched all over with panels of filagree work.
