what is the difference between a cake and a biscuit?

Question

Everyone at work is talking Jaffa cakes and saying they are called cakes get out of paying tax, however I would call them a cake not a biscuit anyway! Help?

Answer 1

The difference which McVities used to prove that Jaffa Cakes are indeed cakes is that:-

Cakes go hard when they are stale.
Biscuits go soft when they are stale.

Jaffa Cakes go hard, therefore McVities successfully claimed that they are cakes (they baked a huge Jaffa cake to prove the point).


The difference is important for tax reasons.

Cakes do not attract VAT.
The alternative classification "a chocolate covered biscuit" is classed as a luxury food item and does attract VAT.

.

Answer 2

from WIlkipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa_Cake
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Cake or biscuit?

Under UK law, no VAT is charged on biscuits and cakes — they are "zero rated". Chocolate covered biscuits, however, are classed as luxury items and are subject to VAT at 17.5%. McVitie's classed its Jaffa Cakes as cakes, but in 1991, this was challenged by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in court.[4] This may have been because Jaffa Cakes are about the same size and shape as some types of biscuit. The question which had to be answered was what criteria should be used to class something as a cake or biscuit. McVitie's defended the classification of Jaffa Cakes as a cake by producing a giant Jaffa Cake to illustrate that their Jaffa Cakes were simply mini cakes.

They also argued that the distinction between cakes and biscuits is simply that biscuits go soft when stale, whereas cakes go hard. It was demonstrated that Jaffa Cakes become hard when stale and McVitie's won the case.[5]

The issue was revisited in an article entitled 'Are Jaffa Cakes really biscuits?' published in the Journal of Unlikely Science (Volume 1, issue 7, 2005).[6] The article attempted to classify biscuits via a scientific analysis of various features (size, shape, filling etc.) and determined that the Jaffa Cake should be regarded as a biscuit, or 'pseudobiscuit'.
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I guess that if the company loses, then taxes will be added to these cakes making them unaffordable, out of reach for a regular guys consumption.

Answer 3

Techinically, a cake is something that goes hard when it's stale and a biscuit goes soft......

In my recipe book at home a have 'jaffa' cakes (except they aren't called that for obvious reasons) and they're in the biscuit section. What kind of tax are you talking about? I think cakes and biscuits are both taxed as 'food'.

Answer 4

i have heard that there is a difference in tax, but I'm not sure quite how it applies.
And the most sensible suggestion I've heard as to the difference, is that a biscuit goes soft when it goes stale (something to do with the absorbtion of water) and a cake goes hard.
sorry it's a bit woolly, but it's the best I have.

Answer 5

The base of a jaffa cake is made of a fat less sponge the same is used for a Swiss Roll. So it is a cake and not a biscuit.

Answer 6

Where on the planet are biscuits taxed but not cakes?
Cakes are sort of squishy when you press them between your fingers, biscuits are hard and crisp - some of them even have to be dunked.
What a lovely job for the Tax official! He probably gets fatter than the health and safety officer who haunts MacDonald's!

Answer 7

Before all the Americans started bleating, we are talking about biscuits (you call them cookies) not those scone things that you mistakenly call biscuits.

A Jaffa cake, from what I can remember, is soft not crunchy like a biscuit so I would call it a cake anyway. Tax has nothing to do with it since both cakes and biscuits are classed as food.

Answer 8

cake goes hard when stale, biccuits go soft.

Hence, jaffa cakes are cakes not biscuits.

Answer 9

A cake is soft - or should be if not over cooked - and a biscuit is usually flat and hard. Unleavened.

Answer 10

Cakes are nicer than biscuits.