The humble Jaffa Cake has caused chaos at a lesser-known London museum after a well-intentioned tribute to the treat took a sticky turn.
Peek Freans Biscuit Museum in Bermondsey, London, opened a new exhibition on June 30, celebrating McVitie’s Jaffa Cake, only to be met with a cease-and-desist-style letter.
The problem? Jaffa Cakes, despite residing in the biscuit aisle, are famously not biscuits.
It’s no laughing matter, as McVitie’s has fought long and hard to cement the cake status of its chocolate orange treat, which is nearly 100 years old, and was quick to correct the museum’s frankly preposterous categorisation of it as anything else.
The confectionery giant warned that the inclusion of Jaffa Cakes in a biscuit exhibition was factually incorrect and sent the museum a letter to set the record straight.
‘Dear Sirs, Madams, and Biscuit Enthusiasts,’ the letter begins. ‘It has come to our attention, with no small degree of dismay, that the Biscuit Museum has included the humble Jaffa Cake within its exhibition of Biscuitry.
‘We write to you today, not with crumbs of animosity, but with a full slice of firm objection.
‘Allow us to be clear: Jaffa Cakes are, in fact, cakes. Not biscuits. Not hybrid snacks. Some would say the clue is in the name on the box.’
In a follow-up statement, a spokesperson for McVitie’s said: ‘Look, we love a good biscuit as much as the next snack enthusiast, but we’ve got to draw the line somewhere, and that line is sponge-based.
‘We respect the Biscuit’s Museum’s enthusiasm, but a cake’s a cake, even when it’s small, round and lives suspiciously close to Hobnobs. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the way the cake crumbles.’
If the Biscuit Museum had done its research, it would have discovered that this isn’t the first time Jaffa Cakes have been at the centre of a full-blown identity crisis.
Latest London news
- Pensioner left ‘appalled’ after landlord fails to repair front door bashed in by mistake
- Manhunt launched after woman followed off bus and sexually assaulted
- Iconic London nightclub set for one last party before closing its doors for good
To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro’s London news hub.
In 1991, McVitie’s won a UK VAT tribunal, which decided the treat was in fact a cake – a distinction that made it exempt from VAT, unlike its biscuit relatives.
McVitie’s brought forward strong arguments, including the product’s name (they are called Jaffa CAKES after all), their composition and texture (‘the same as a traditional sponge cake’) and the fact they go hard ‘like a cake’ when they go stale, rather than ‘soft like a biscuit’.
HMRC settled the matter and decided the treat had enough characteristics of cakes to be accepted as such.
Queen of cakes Mary Berry – perhaps the best deciding authority – affirmed Jaffa Cakes’ status as a cake in a 2016 episode of the Great British Bake Off, where she ‘silenced’ biscuit apologist.
Despite the court ruling, the ‘is it a cake or a biscuit?’ debate continues to divide households, office staffrooms, and social media feeds.
Some convincing arguments from the opposition are that they are marketed and packaged like biscuits and, most importantly, found in the biscuit aisle.
‘If Jaffa Cakes are cakes, where do you put the candles?’, plenty of others have pondered.
Staff at the museum were left with no choice but to remove the exhibition. However, its curator, Gary Magold, hopes a compromise can be made.
‘It’s a shame we’ve had to remove the exhibition for the moment,’ he said. ‘But, as a nation of Jaffa Cake lovers, we’re hoping to reach an agreement.’
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
