P.S. i've even tried calling McVitties on this, all I got was a harassed security guard.
2006-06-17 12:27:39 · 21 answers · asked by Simon W 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
As lots of folk have pointed out - its a cake coz it goes hard if left out, due to its sponge base!
This point was made in a court case by the judge - it was all about the VAT.
There's no VAT on cakes so McViites wanted to call it a cake so they didn't have to give 17.5% to Customs. They baked a big giant jaffa cake and handed it round court to prove it was spongy.
Customs said it was a Choccy biccy (17.5% VAT) and wanted their share of the VAT. They pointed out that jaffa cakes are next to biscuits and you wouldn't buy a packet when you really wanted, say,a birthday cake.
McVities won and the judge used the example of the cake going hard if left out overnight.
So now you know - much more tax efficient to buy jaffa cakes than choccy digestives!
2006-06-19 08:33:10 · answer #1 · answered by Flick W 2 · 6⤊ 2⤋
Ah, the long debated question!
Bisuit, according to the ever trustworthy dictionary.com can be defined as "n 1: small round bread leavened with baking-powder or soda 2: any of various small flat sweet cakes" suggesting that biscuits and cakes are the same thing, provided that the cake is small, flat, sweet and made using baking powder. I decide to go scavenge my mothers kitchen cabinets and see if I could find any jaffa cakes therein to examine the ingredients. No luck. She advises me to raid my recycle bin... grossly enough, I did, but still nothing. Maybe you can check your own Jaffa Cakes packet?
Dictionary.com also cross-refferenced to the american term 'cookie' defining it as "A small, usually flat and crisp cake made from sweetened dough". Now, under this deffinition a Jaffa Cake is not a cookie, and therefor not a biscuit - it is not flat (notice the way a Jaffa Cake curves towards the top, to make room for the delicious orangey filling) and it is not crisp - it is delightfully soft and spongey!
But does a Jaffa Cake really fit the deffinition of 'cake'? I am told that a cake is
"A sweet baked food made of flour, liquid, eggs, and other ingredients, such as raising agents and flavorings.
A flat rounded mass of dough or batter, such as a pancake that is baked or fried.
A flat rounded mass of hashed or chopped food that is baked or fried; a patty.
A shaped or molded piece, as of soap or ice.
A layer or deposit of compacted matter: a cake of grime in the oven."
Hmm... although I very much doubt a Jaffa Cakes comparitablility with soap or ice, it is a sweet baked food which includes those ingredients.
Therefor, through my careful and scientific (heh) investigation, I have concluded that Jaffa Cakes are, in fact, cakes. I probably could have saved myself a lot of time and effort if I had simply looked at the name 'Jaffa CAKE' but hey, what's done is done!
2006-06-18 06:23:33 · answer #2 · answered by Pebbles 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
According to the BBC: Even the British government has become embroiled in this web of snack-related intrigue. At present the Jaffa Cake is classified as a cake but the British government is attempting to get it reclassified as a biscuit. This would mean it would come under a higher tax bracket as biscuits aren't as perishable as cakes, or something technical like that.
2006-06-17 23:29:45 · answer #3 · answered by pipesofpan17 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The reason Jaffa cakes are called cake is because they are baked once. The word biscuit comes from the French words "bis cuit" which translates as twice cooked or baked twice.
2006-06-17 19:56:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You sound a bit obsessive. Maybe you need help?
Or are you just very bored?
Does it really matter?
Oh, OK then, its a BISCUIT!!!!!
But a bit like a cake so thats why they call it Jaffa cake.
OK?
2006-06-17 19:36:24 · answer #5 · answered by Suzita 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you'll find jaffa cakes in the biscuit section of your local Kwik-E Mart
2006-06-17 22:07:00 · answer #6 · answered by Sattvik allanek 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is a peanut a 'pea' or a 'nut'. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England, nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? So, the ultimate question is how do you eat your Jaffa CAKE!
2006-06-17 20:03:04 · answer #7 · answered by Invisible 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
cake because it's soft. Biscuits are hard, Also biscuits are savoury and cakes are sweet. Jaffa cakes are sweet.
2006-06-17 19:34:18 · answer #8 · answered by Evil J.Twin 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Biscuit
2006-06-17 19:31:33 · answer #9 · answered by lucyt20 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
neither.
its a JAFFA ,meaning half:
so half biscuit,half cake
2006-06-17 19:44:59 · answer #10 · answered by RACHEL 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋