The Jaffa Cake Debate

It can't have escaped your notice that many authors in the Wordy Wednesday interviews choose the delicious orange Jaffa Cake as their favourite biscuit.

Since the day the Jaffa cake was invented (by good friends Mr Jaffa and Mr Cake) there has been debate as to whether they are biscuits or cakes. If only Mr Jaffa's cousin Reginald Biscuit had gone into partnership with him as first planned this would never have happened!*

There was even a court case about the small round and biscuit sized snack, which determnined that, for tax purposes they were tiny flat cakes, not biscuits. Decided by the simple fact that a cake becomes hard when stale while a biscuit becomes soft. Test it for yourself, leave a jaffa cake uneaten for a few days out on a dish in the kitchen (no I have never managed this test either - the tax office must be very strong willed).

But can we trust what the tax office says? After all, they said that Egyptian mummies were 'dried fish' for tax purposes, so there can be some debate as to their veracity.

So I asked the general public via the medium of Twitter, as we all know they are an intelligent lot. There was of course much squabbling as they are also an argumentative lot. But the final outcome was...

So please answer and RT this poll in readiness
Is a jaffa cake a biscuit? Also do you like them? #jaffacake

— Tattooed Mummy (@tattooed_mummy) June 8, 2016

and therefore there will be no more acceptance of Jaffa Cakes as the favourite biscuit of authors. Thank you.

@tattooed_mummy It's a biscuit dammit. You can dunk it in tea.

— Marion Grace Woolley (@AuthorMGW) June 8, 2016

No! No more!

@M_Hoosenhole @tattooed_mummy in all honesty I would be the one eating them while everyone else argued about it anyway

— Ice Queen (@opalfruits78) June 9, 2016

Ok there we are, we can eat them, we cannot call them biscuits.

Pop over and like my Facebook Page to join in a conversation about Jaffa Cakes, or some news story that catches my eye. Or Follow my meandering chatter on Twitter.

*This bit may be a blatant lie

Extra info about the law and why the debate matters : Under UK law no value added tax (VAT) is placed on biscuits or cakes. But critical to the controversial issue of Jaffa Cakes’ name, when a biscuit is covered in chocolate it becomes subject to the standard VAT rate, currently 20%.

Photo credit Copyright: shootdiem / 123RF Stock Photo