A grocery expert has issued a simple hack that will change the way you eat Jaffa Cakes forever.
The age-old debate of whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit has been raging for years. But a fresh and potentially more controversial revelation has emerged – and it’s all about how you hold it.
The Jaffa Cake’s legal status as a “cake” was established in a 1991 court case to dodge a UK tax on biscuits.
McVitie’s successfully contended that the product has the characteristics of a cake, which becomes firm when stale, rather than a biscuit, which goes soft. But what folk haven’t yet cottoned on to is that the brand also famously confirmed that the chocolate is actually on the bottom, reports the Express.
Richard Price, a grocery expert at Brit Superstore, has exposed this mistake that many of us will likely be guilty of making.
He said: “It’s a very British dilemma. We’ve all been holding it upside down all along. Naturally, we see the chocolate and assume it goes on top, but the official way is actually to eat it with the sponge side up. The chocolate is meant to be the base, not the topping.”
This was backed up by the manufacturers themselves, McVitie’s.
According to the experts, the Jaffa Cake travels through a “reservoir of chocolate” on the production line, which means the chocolate is officially the base.
This means the proper way to consume it is with the sponge side facing down, so the chocolate strikes your tongue first. “For years, people have debated their own complex methods, from nibbling the edges off to eating the jelly first,” Richard said.
“But McVitie’s has now made it official.”
Though the cake versus biscuit argument was resolved ages ago, it keeps getting brought up again – most recently by American TikToker Elizabeth Walker, who recently relocated to the UK and was puzzled by the Jaffa Cakes she spotted on supermarket shelves.
In a clip, she said: “Protected my peace so hard I moved to another country and now drink hot tea in 40C weather (sometimes I’ll put the milk in first) but am really confused as to why Jaffa Cakes are called cakes and not biscuits.”
Thousands of users shared their opinions, with one writing: “For tax reasons mostly! And they are cakey on the bottom.”
Another person commented: “Anyone that tells you Jaffa Cakes are biscuits want to see you fail. They’re literally made with sponge cake.”
And a third wrote: “When stale, biscuits go soft and cakes go hard. It was a legal case that Jaffa won with that argument to keep the name cake.”