Jaffa Cakes - or biscuits? - Food Blog

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Jaffa Cakes - or biscuits?

Posted at 10:54AM, 28 March 2008 by Graham Holliday - Blogger

"They're not biscuits, they're cakes." That is what we're told, even if our senses scream biscuits.

Jaffa Cakes are designated cake produce by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise. There have been murmurings of a serious cake vs. biscuit dispute in the Houses of Parliament involving VAT arguments, biscuit moisture versus cake moisture ratios...

According to the crumbtastic A nice cup of tea and a sit down website, Jaffa cakes are indeed cakes, "Yes the VAT man wanted it to be a biscuit. That way it would fall by virtue of its chocolate coat into a category of products liable to VAT at the standard rate, i.e. luxury biscuits. As a cake however it is zero rated for VAT, no matter how luxuriant, much to the VAT man's continuing annoyance."

Knowing your UK biscuit law could be the difference between gainful employment and the dole queue.

And long may the VAT man remain annoyed. Jaffa Cakes are a unique hybrid. They straddle the two worlds of moist cake produce and crunchy biscuits in a perfect chocolatey sealed orange sponge. And don't thnk we're in trivial territory here. After five years debate, the Jaffa Cake entered the Oxford English Dictionary described as, "a sponge biscuit with an orange-flavoured jelly filling and chocolate topping"... The OED controversially eschewed the biscuit word only to use the cake alternative with confidence.

Some recruitment agencies quiz potential candidates about their biscuit to cake knowhow. Knowing your UK biscuit law could be the difference between gainful employment and the dole queue. Some people have the oddest ways of eating them - and yes, you really must watch that to the end...

However, for all the arguments either side of the biscuit versus cake divide one thing remains, they taste tremendous. They are unparalleled in the taste stakes and A nice cup of tea a sit down's wifey is quite righty, "I know they sell them along with the biscuits, in packs just like biscuits, and McVities is a brand of United Biscuits (who also make cakes) but it's still a small cake... despite all of this Wifey still thinks they are biscuits." And so do I. Where do you stand on the great 'cake or biscuit' debate?

Comments

1-20 of 23 comments

Annie

28 March 2008, 10:56AM
Annie

Definitely a biscuit!

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Sarahjane

28 March 2008, 11:41AM
Sarahjane

When a biscuit goes stales it softens, when a cake goes stale it hardens. Jaffa cakes harden therefore they must be cakes!

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tattookitten

28 March 2008, 3:37PM
tattookitten

Biscuit!!! Did anyone else think those lime ones tasted like washing up liquid? :D

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Lin

29 March 2008, 7:31AM
Lin

Got to be a nice snack whatever they are!!!

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thisediblelife

29 March 2008, 1:30PM
thisediblelife

Would you ever have a slice of Jaffa Cake? Not unless you live in Lilliput. Biscuit it is then!

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Haddock in the Kitchen

29 March 2008, 2:48PM
Haddock in the Kitchen

Come live in France and confuse matters further! There lurks in every supermarket "biscuit section" items that definitely put the good old Jaffa Cake on a 3 day week. Bon Maman "tartelettes" and "barquettes" fall into a no man's land in biscuit lore in my opinion...........they are too crunchy for a jam tart and too soft for a biscuit. Nice though.......................... (Note to self: Isn't "biscuit" the French for "cooked twice"?)

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noodlepie

31 March 2008, 1:59PM
noodlepie

Ooh no... not the lime ones tattookitten, once bitten twice shy and all that. @Haddockinthekitchen I must say the Casino supermarket own brand jaffa Cake-esque offering is not at all a bad substitute. However, I find the Jaffa original has a harder cake end and is of course a better all round Jaffa Cake in every respect :)

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Gayns

31 March 2008, 8:46PM
Gayns

definitely a biscuit!! nothing beats them and how quickly does that packet disappear!!

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Gbobs

1 April 2008, 10:19AM
Gbobs

definitely a biscuit although I hate them, as a child lived next door to a baker and he gave my sister and i a packet every day which we loved and ate them straight away hence why now I cannot stand them!!!!

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Jenni

1 April 2008, 1:47PM
Jenni

Go for the lush ones made by Peyton & Byrne â�� really big with great quality dark chocolate top â�� and you may decide they're cake after all. They're in the cafe at the Wellcome Collection and Peyton & Byrne stalls on Tottenham Court Road and St Pancras station.

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Lucy

1 April 2008, 2:48PM
Lucy

Biscuit and a yummy one at that. Its a struggle not to eat a whole tube and hard not do the old "full moon, half moon, total eclipse" impression in the funny accent. A classic advert! Anyone remember it?

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andrew hall

1 April 2008, 9:41PM
andrew hall

Definately a cake.

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Koeksister

3 April 2008, 2:41PM
Koeksister

Doesn't really matter what they are (a rose by any other name etc.) as it makes no difference to the pleasure one gets from eating them.

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Zoe

4 April 2008, 3:49PM
Zoe

Definately a cake like biscuit -, and definately not a biscuit like cake.

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BAMBAM

5 April 2008, 12:20PM
BAMBAM

They are a similar consistency to rusks, also trifle sponges (in my opinion anyway!) so I would say they are more like a cake, also, I wouldn't dunk them in my coffee as I would imagine they would go too sloppy. Perhaps they could be defined as a hybrid? (is all this a bit too deep?)

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DrFabio

6 April 2008, 12:55AM
DrFabio

I heard that McVities baked a giant Jaffa Cake to prove to the Tax Man that when it goes stale, it hardens just like a cake! Not that I'm that bothered, they usually don't hang around long enough for me to examine them too closely...

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curtis03

6 April 2008, 7:06PM
curtis03

I think jaffa cakes are definetley a cake becuase cakes are usually soft and biscuits are hard and crunchy

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Annie

8 April 2008, 12:29PM
Annie

I think it's McVities, although I could be wrong, who actually make a Jaffa cake bar - an individual sponge cake, with the orange jelly and covered in chocolate - now to me, that's the cake and the traditional Jaffa Cake is the biscuit.

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mags

15 April 2008, 6:46PM
mags

they are one of the only biscuit/cakes that are low in calories but they taste great.

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.:~carol~:.

19 April 2008, 10:49AM
.:~carol~:.

I remember the advert lucy, you just can't eat a jaffa cake without doing the accent, they are definately cakes. If you were going to make them you would have to make the base a sponge, so therefore they are cakes.

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