 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. 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. In 2012 they were ranked the best selling cake or biscuit in the United Kingdom.