Timely song about a lot of cake (5)
I believe the answer is:
carol
'timely song' is the definition.
'carol' can be an answer for 'song' (carol is a kind of song). I'm not certain of the 'timely' bit.
'about a lot of cake' is the wordplay.
'about' becomes 'c' (abbreviation for circa).
'lot of' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'lots of' mean this (the majority of the word)).
'cake' becomes 'roll' (roll is a type of cake eg Swiss roll).
'roll' with its last letter removed is 'rol'.
'c'+'a'+'rol'='CAROL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for carol that I've seen before include "Female" , "Canticle" , "and 27: Waits" , "Coral (anag.)" , "Song, especially at Christmas" .)