Short breather before a dictator's second fruitcake (7)
I believe the answer is:
lunatic
'fruitcake' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'short breather before a dictator's second' is the wordplay.
'short breather before' becomes 'luna' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a dictator's' shows a homophone (sound like) (as somebody dictating would pronounce the word).
'second' becomes 'tick' (both can mean a very short amount of time).
'tick' sounds like 'tic'.
'luna'+'tic'='LUNATIC'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lunatic that I've seen before include "Type of fringe" , "nut" , "bonkers" , "bananas" , "crazed?" .)