Is it a biscuit or cake?

A cake goes hard when old and a biscuit goes soft.

Re cake or biscuit, we were always told that a cake goes hard when stale and a biscuit goes soft when stale.

It’s so very sad isn’t it M0nica. It’s all about greed and more money for the shareholders. My dh coined the phrase ‘it’s like a race to the bottom’
years ago after so many of our old favourites were changed and specifically everything made by ‘Cad-berry’ as the owners call it.

I think the jaffacake is definitely a cake.😁

Yes ive tried the M&S ones, the lime is nice but i really like lime tasting food/drinks. They have dark chocolate on and they are rectanular.

Just eaten my first McVitie Jaffa Jonut. I kid you not . I think that they were on offer at my local Coop

I thought that they were just a small packet of Jaffa Cakes..l didn't have my glasses with me.

Not bad. But l think to he classic Jaffa is still the best.

They taste like a donut shaped Jaffa Cake on steroids!

Someone told me KitKat is a chocolate bar. No, it's a chocolate biscuit.

i have also noticed the change in jaffa cakes, don't get me started on jaffa cakes honey, one bite and my mouth was burning, what happened to the if it's not broke don't fix it.

they are much smaller now and less in a pack

Sadly, the flavour of almost all chocolate products went south a few years ago, and you'll now quite often see the phrase "chocolate flavour" on packaging. Anyone who liked the old Kit Kats (etc etc) discovered a while back that they had turned very odd, and that's because accountants overrule the taste testers.

Re Jaffa Cakes, they're not a biscuit, as there's no firm base. And no, they also don't taste so good these days. BUT --- as someone said, they ARE in M&S, and I recall a Raspberry version, as well as Lime and the trad ones (NO idea if M&S would have all options, likely depends on your particular branch?). I also think Aldi do them, their own 'brand', and though we don't go there very often (bit of a trek), they had seemed acceptable?

For those who haven't been keeping up (?!), cocoa prices rocketed up a few years ago, with the growers affected by climate change, and a major disease outbreak affecting the crops. Hence we now often get a chemical concoction as "chocolate Flavour" -- though it may well not be the same flavour you really liked?! I used to be able to decimate a packet of Choc Digestives (pref Plain), but now just one or two is quite enough. Maybe it's a sign the Good Lord DOES move in mysterious ways, the factors affecting cocoa crops having been delivered to aid my need to cut down on naughty foodstuffs?!

Oh, and Google also says:- A further cause is "Shrinkflation": In the UK, many popular chocolate brands have opted to shrink package sizes and adjust ingredients while simultaneously raising prices to protect their profit margins. Somebody with a degree must have written that -- one in stating the b* obvious?!!

You all need to try the LU biscuits version of these ! They are SO much better than McVities. Unfortunately dont think you can get them in many places.

BoggledMind

The cake or biscuit debate will probably go on forever, but McVities call them a cake and a judge agreed.

In 1991 HMRC wanted to charge vat on them because that's what happens with biscuits, but not cakes. It went to court and the judge saw both sides of the cake or biscuit argument but ultimately sided with McVities and said they were cakes (for the purpose of vat).

We recently had the limited edition Zuzu Lemon Jaffa Cakes and they were quite nice.

One of the deciding factors was what happened when they became stale: biscuits go soft, cakes get harder. Jaffa Cakes harden as they get stale, therefore they are cakes.
I am not a Jaffa Cake or VAT nerd, honest, I worked for the accountancy firm representing McVities.

Aren't they known, marketed, as Jaffa Cakes

Another thumbs-up for the M&S lemon and lime jaffa cakes.

Cake - goes hard when left out
Biscuit - goes soft when left out

I am not allowed to eat jaffa cakes cos of the fat content but used to love them.

Leave one out and see if it goes hard or soft!

My brother used to love jaffa cakes so much he invented a game, inspired by the Victor Spinetti ad of the 70s, where we would face each other with a cushion balanced on our head (to represent the massive turban on the ad) and shake each other vigorously, shouting "there's orangey" until a cushion fell off thereby declaring the cushion retainer the winner.

Must ask him if he still loves the 2026 version with the same passion but going by the comments upthread I doubt it.

The best definition i have seen is what happens when the item is left out- if it dries, it's cake. If it softens, it's biscuit Simps!

Don’t like chocolate so you can all have my share

I used to love wagon wheels, but they don't taste the same now.

I don't like Jaffa Cakes but my brother loves them. My baker friend once told me to tell the difference between biscuits and cakes to remember biscuits go soft and cakes go hard when not in an airtight container.

I believe most chocolate biscuits are just covered in a chocolate flavoured substance nowadays.
I think it’s hard to get a decent biscuit, unless you pay top notch for them.

When my grandson was little, we'd realise he'd been quiet for a while, go into the kitchen, and he'd be smothered head to toe in jaffa cake chocolate and orange jelly sticky stuff.

I haven't tasted one for years, but now I'll have to add a packet to my Tesco order.

Try Aldi or Lidl chocolate, I believe is German, and it is real grown up chocolate. Feeling hungry now 🫣

M&S do something virtually the same, only better. I have been known to make a complete 🐷 of myself on their dark chocolate ‘Jaffa’ cakes.