Jaffa Cakes – they’re spongy like a cake but you find them in the biscuit aisle, you don’t eat them with a cake fork but you also don’t dunk them in a brew.
The debate around whether Jaffa Cakes are a cake or a biscuit has raged on for generations.
But now McVitie’s, the company behind those spongy, chocolatey, orangey discs of joy, has finally settled things once and for all.
The brand, which launched the snack way back in 1927, took to Twitter yesterday and quietly confirmed that Jaffa Cakes are, in fact, cakes – as their name suggests.
In response to a curious fan this week who simply asked on Twitter this week: “Is a Jaffa Cake a Cake or a biscuit?”, Jaffa Cakes officially confirmed that it’s “cake all the way”.
Although this definitive answer may seem like the end of the debate, it may not actually be what is seems, as this isn’t the first time McVitie’s has tried to argue the cake label.
In 1991, McVitie’s successfully managed to argue that the sweet treat are in fact cakes and therefore exempt from VAT, but a later tribunal then determined that, while certain characteristics of the Jaffa Cake were cake-like, including the ingredients and texture, it was also the size and shape of a biscuit, and packaged and sold alongside biscuits.
This means that it’s presented to be eaten with your fingers, and not with a fork like cakes are generally consumed.
So honestly, who really knows anymore?
The brand’s latest Twitter response comes after it launched a variation on the British classic last May known as a ‘Jonut’ – a doughnut-shaped ring of sponge with the staple orange-flavoured filling and a dark chocolate coating that McVitie’s bosses expected would “spark further conversation”.
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It also comes after the brand revealed back in 2020 that there is apparently a right and wrong way to eat a Jaffa Cake.
When a confectionary fan went directly to the verified official Jaffa Cake Facebook page and simply asked “What side of the Jaffa is the bottom?”, the company’s response was: “Our Jaffa Cakes go through a reservoir of chocolate, so the chocolate is on the bottom.”
Featured Image – McVitie’s
