Jaffa Cakes
 A Jaffa Cake cut in half | |
| Alternative names | Jaffa |
|---|---|
| Type | Cake |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Region or state | All Regions |
| Created by | McVitie and Price |
| Main ingredients | Sponge cake, orange-flavoured jam, chocolate |
| Variations | Various limited edition flavours (Lemon and lime, strawberry, black currant) |
Jaffa Cakes are a small kind of sweet snack that are named after the Jaffa orange. They are made with orange-flavored jam, and chocolate. McVitie and Price introduced them in the United Kingdom in 1927. Even though they look like biscuits, a court ruled that they are cakes. The court case was because biscuits are taxed differently than cakes. In the United Kingdom cakes are treated as a staple food so value-added tax is not charged. Biscuits are taxed because they are treated as a luxury.
McVitie's did not register the name "Jaffa Cakes" as a trademark. For this reason, other biscuit manufacturers and supermarkets have made similar products under the same name.[1] The product's classification as a cake or biscuit was part of a VAT tribunal in 1991. The court found in McVitie's favour that the Jaffa cake should be considered a cake for tax purposes.[2] In 2012 they were ranked the best selling cake or biscuit in the United Kingdom.[3]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Harry Wallop (6 May 2012). "Jaffa Cakes - definitely not biscuits - prepare to take on imitators". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ↑ "VAT Tribunal case LON/91/0160 (United Biscuits)". Archived from the original on 10 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
- ↑ "Jaffa Cakes - definitely not biscuits - prepare to take on imitators" Archived 17 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 December 2014