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Jaffa Cakes

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jaffa Cakes
A Jaffa Cake cut in half
Alternative namesJaffa
TypeCake
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Region or stateAll Regions
Created byMcVitie and Price
Main ingredientsSponge cake, orange-flavoured jam, chocolate
VariationsVarious 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]
  1. 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.
  2. "VAT Tribunal case LON/91/0160 (United Biscuits)". Archived from the original on 10 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  3. "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