CELEBRITY chef Jamie Oliver has given us some sweet words of wisdom on whether Jaffa cakes are really cakes or biscuits.
Earlier this week we kicked off our super new Burning Questions feature by trying to settle the age-old argument.
When we caught up with him for a chat at Bluewater, TV cook and restaurateur Jamie had this to say about Jaffa cakes: “It probably is a cake because it is based around a sponge recipe, then it has got jellied orange and then chocolate.
“I can only imagine it was a bit bigger back in the old days. It’s in a biscuit format if that make you feel better.
“The word biscuit is of French descent and if you go back 100 years there is a massive confusion between cake and biscuit. There’s a thing called tosset cake, a forgotten 700-year-old biscuit – it’s a biscuit, not a cake, but if it’s called a tosset cake for 700 years you can’t say it is a biscuit, can you?
“It’s (Jaffa cake) like a little madeleine – is that a biscuit, no? It’s the same batter mix. We make homemade ones at the restaurant sometimes and crumble them up into ice cream – it’s f***ing awesome.”
Other people who answered the question also came down firmly on the side of Jaffa cakes being cakes.
The most commonly given reason was that biscuits go soft when they are stale whereas cakes go hard – therefore if a Jaffa cake goes hard when it’s stale it must be a cake.
It was also pointed out that for something to be a biscuit it has to snap when broken in half.
A 74 per cent majority of people who have voted in our web poll have chosen the cakes option, while the official McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes Twitter page provided this insight: “We are indeed cakes; hence the word cakes in our name. We admit that this is a very subtle clue though.”
When it was mentioned they look like biscuits, get served as biscuits and are sold as biscuits we were told: “None of that matters right now. Just know that we are cakey not biscuity.”
The definitive word was had on Twitter by Carol Hedges, who said: “Jaffa cakes are tasty. End of.”
If you agree or disagree with any of these answers add your own comments below.
Continuing the citrus theme, we didn’t get a particularly clear answer as to how marmalade got its name or why only orange jam gets referred to as marmalade. If you have any knowledge on this which you’ve been preserving for such an occasion, please share it below.
Our Burning Questions feature aims to settle some of life’s perennial arguments and answer some of its little mysteries with readers’ collective knowledge.
We’d love your suggestions for arguments and questions to cover. What are the things that make you go hmmm? Add your comments below or email us
Our full and exclusive interview with Jamie Oliver will be in Vibe soon.
SOME MORE TOPICS TO HAVE YOUR SAY ON AND BURNING QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:
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