Jaffa Cakes

There was a legal battle about whether it was cake or biscuit and the answer was cake. Even though they are thin they do fit better for the criteria of cake. A simple rule is cake is soft when it's ok to eat and goes hard when it's stale. Biscuits are hard when they are ok to eat and go soft when stale.

I like Jaffa cakes but they're not really a snack I choose to buy. I'd eat one if offered one. I've only ever eaten the original ones.

Thanks Robert. I will hunt for these next week! 

You can get them in almost any Eastern European shop such as,

Those look interesting and I would like to try them, but I haven’t seen them in the shops where I live, possibly that’s because I shop as little as possible.

I also love Jaffa cakes. Especially the ones imported from the EU with all the different flavours.  I think these people make around eight flavours.

ArchaeC said:

Sorry O&O, This was meant to be a reply to Mark.

Not a problem.  I was going to explain myself but you've done me a favour 

Mine too.

I think it could say McVities is a reputable manufacturer that supermarkets are happy to trust.

Edit: Sorry O&O, This was meant to be a reply to Mark.

Food manufacturers do that all the time, and have done that for years.A well known ice cream manufacturer I know makes M&S, Tesco & Sainsbury’s ice cream. The recipe is tweaked so that it isn’t exactly identical, but is indistinguishable to many. 

For example, a manufacturer and a supermarket agree contracts of x number of units at £x of a supermarket own brand product such as a Jaffa cake. Both parties have predictability of cost and profit over a set number of months. Fixed contracts are loved by businesses because they can base future business decisions on profit and loss forecasts. M&S would have different requirements on packaging and unit size compared to Asda because they have a different customer base and there packaging reflects this. The supermarket can specify their requirement to best meet theirs needs for maximum profitability. It is a fined tuned system that works.

How is disguising their product as someone else's a method of generating income? If it's not because they're ashamed of what they make I can't see the point.

I hate to be the bearer of what some may see as bad news, but there are so many companies that sell their products to be sold under other labels.. It’s not that the original company are ashamed of their goods: it’s just another method used to generate income. I know Kellogs have done it in the past, I don’t know if they still do. I recall being told some years ago that the like of Sainsbury’s “house” style wine, can be good quality wine that was leftover from the number of bottles winemakers produce under their own name. So, to sum up: not just Jaffa Cakes - that I love too by the way. I also love the raspberry Polish ones that you get from Lidl ;-)

That doesn't make sense.  You say don't buy McVities, but you'd not know if you were buying McVities or not if what you say is true (that they are making foods for other labels)  

I doubt they are ashamed either.  They've been going for almost 200 years. 

Supermarkets don't generally make their own foods...  they get it made for them, so it isn't a big deal that McVities would make products for other outlets.  However there's no guarantee they'd put exactly the same ingredients in them all.

DO NOT BUY MCVITIES JAFFACAKES. Or McVities anything for that matter. Apparently they make a lot of the supermarket's own brand stuff. So you're just paying extra for the same jaffacakes or other biscuits or whatever.

And if they're so ashamed of their products that they want to hide the fact that McVities make them, and disguise them as somebody else's product, what does that say about the quality of what they make?

The original orange ones are my fave

I don't have them often but when I do it's a nice treat. They taste as good as they did when I was little.

Me too, each layer is like a little piece of heaven. It's the only correct way to eat them in my opinion.

Marks and Sparks do 'em in weird flavours... 

I find tunnocks too sweet and the base texture is odd. I used to like trio bars, I don't think they exist anymore. Sort of a biscuit base with three squares of caramel(ish) blocks, covered in chocolate. I used to eat the chocolate, then the caramel and finally the biscuit. Club and viscount biscuits got the same treatment.

My son it’s an alarming amount of Jaffa cakes every week - he loves them. My weakness is a Tunnocks chocolate Teacake - I like to eat the chocolate shell first, then the marshmallow, and finally the base. I love the contrasting textures of each layer.

I love them all but nothing beats the originals.

Are they a cake or biscuit? Well now technically a cake but sold with the biscuits. When I was working in Morrisons (left because of stress) I heard a woman arguing with a co-worker that they should have been with the cakes not the biscuits.

I do like Jaffa cakes but only the classic variety. The only problem is not being able to stop once open I tend to eat them all. I would consider them a biscuit personally regardless of their legal status.