Jaffa Cakes

Jaffa Cakes are small pieces of confectionery, circular in shape and 54mm in diameter. They have three layers: the sponge cake, the smashing orangey bit (made of orange jelly) and chocolate.

They takes the name from the Jaffa orange, which takes its name from the Palestinian city of Jaffa and is Israel's primary citrus export. Jaffa oranges are good for making jam out of (for the smashing orangey bit) as jaffa oranges are seedless and sweet; have a thick skin so good for transport; are very cold-tolerant and stores well.

The jaffa orange can catch asthma.

Well, at least they can be infected with the Altermania altenata fungus - which destroys the oranges but causes asthma in humans.

The city of Jaffa had a boon in citrus export after the Crimean war Oct 1853 - Feb 1856. This is mainly people squabbling over the fall of the Ottoman empire. Bonaparte stages a coup d'etat in France and takes the throne. He's the last ever monarch of France. After he was captured by the Prussians France became and remains a republic.

Napolean sent a message that France is the soverign authority in the Holy Land. Russia disagrees, France bullies the Ottoman empire into agreeing, the British convince them to change their minds and everyone piles in. War erupts. It kills 143,000 people.

There is a plus-side though. In the wake of the war, in order to rebuild, the people of Jaffa need something cheap and cheerful. The jaffa orange takes the stage.

Citrus production in the middle East declined of course during WWI, but the British Mandate for Palestine brought it back. Which is probably the only good thing the British Mandate for Palestine has ever done.

Jaffa is so famous for its oranges that, like New York is called the Big Apple, Jaffa is called the Big Orange. Jaffa has mostly been incorporated into Tel Aviv, but still remains one of the oldest sea ports in the world, even being mentioned in the Bible.

The main controversy over Jaffa Cakes is whether they are cakes or biscuits. This is because HM Customs and Excise demands VAT on chocolate-covered biscuits (correction by Ian Shuttleworth, thank you) and not on cakes. Because cakes are food. And biscuits are... ...not food? Luxury items, apparently.

Luxury items are subject to VAT, meaning you pay tax on the added value of any particular product. Under VAT you would, say, pay for the materials your business uses (let's say, wood) and you pay the VAT. The raw supplier (who sells you the wood) takes your money, siphons off the bit for VAT and sends it to the government. You then make your product (carve it into a dog) and sell it to the retailer (who sells wooden dog statues in his wooden dog shop). The retailer pays you the money for the stock, and VAT, which you siphon off and give to the government. The retailer sells your wooden dog on to a customer (who collects wooden dogs) and they pay for the dog, plus VAT. Then the retailer, yourself and the man who sells you the wood, reclaim the cost of VAT from the government, meaning you only paid for what you bought. But the customer can't reclaim it, so the government pockets that money and the tax is paid. In America all that doesn't happen, just the customer pays the tax at the end of the line.

Up until 2001 VAT was also charged on woman's sanitary products. This has now been reduced to 5%. Research suggests you could get this down to 0% if you can prove, bizarrely, that it's not only used for what it's designed for - perhaps if you can convince the government it is an item of clothing.

McVities makes Jaffa cakes and so McVities had to go to court to defend their product against HM Customs and Excise (despite VAT being neither a customs tax nor an excise duty). How they won is by claiming the ingredients, texture, appeal to children and name suggest it's a cake. And cakes start soft and go hard when stale, biscuits start hard and go soft when stale. Therefore it is a cake. They even baked a giant Jaffa cake to prove to the judge that jaffa cakes were just miniature cake.

McVities also started the whole digestive biscuit thing. The idea was in 1889 they made a biscuit that you could eat after a meal to help aid your digestion. This was down to the high levels of sodium bicarbonate.

It wasn't until 36 years later they have the brilliant idea of adding chocolate to one side.

It is of course, Gordon Brown's favourite biscuit. Well, eventually any way. In the run-up to the general election he was asked no fewer than 12 times what his favourite biscuit was. He refused to answer until speaking to his advisory panel who told him to go back and say, "A chocolate one."

The record for number of Jaffa cakes eaten in one minute is six. So few because the competitor for the title must entirely finish one Jaffa cake before starting the next, and is not allowed to drink anything whilst doing it.

The advice that I've found states that you should insert the cake chocolate side on your tongue to prevent friction from the cake side, as that could lose your valuable microseconds. Finally, use the smashing orangey bit to aid oral lubrication.

We attempted it and managed 4.5 in a minute in our show.

1-in-10 parents believe that a Jaffa cake is part of your 5-a-day.