This is one of those things that you always hear talk of in pubs frequented by the natural waster, the student.  Is a Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit?

Due to some some odd bureaucracy, in the UK no VAT is charged on biscuits and cakes.  However, VAT is charged on chocolate covered biscuits, as they are seen as luxury items.  Obviously.  So cake is an everyday necessity?  No wonder my self assessment tax form is so confusing.

So what does this have to do with Jaffa Cakes?

Basically Mcvities, the people who make this food of the gods, classed their Jaffa cakes as cakes (I think the name gives this away), and so VAT wasn’t paid on them.  Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise were obviously a bit miffed about this, and took them to court, claiming that Jaffa Cakes were in fact chocolate covered biscuits.  So then the question had to be answered: what criteria should be used to judge whether something is a cake or a biscuit?

Basically, McVities produced a giant Jaffa Cake, to illustrate that Jaffa Cakes were simply mini cakes and argued that the main difference between cakes and biscuits is simply that biscuits go soft when stale, and cakes go hard. It was then shown that Jaffa Cakes go hard when stale.  Thus they must be cakes.

McVities won!

Don’t you feel like you have learned so much today?

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