All I said in my blog of yesterday, entitled "Dunk" was that a Jaffa Cake, that three layered treat comprising a Genoese sponge layer, orange jelly filling and dark chocolate top, was disqualified from being considered as a serious item to dunk because of its ambiguous and contentious status.
In that simple statement I seem to have whipped up a storm in a tea cup and a few persons have come at me with both biscuit barrels blazing.
I had not realised the depth of emotions that a Jaffa Cake envokes amongst the wider public.
I can only apologise for my seeming lack of understanding and appreciation for what has, after all, been part of the British lifestyle since it appeared from the McVities factory way back in 1927.
Surprisingly, and no doubt someone lost their employment status for it, the original mega-bakers failed to Trademark the name Jaffa Cake which explains why you can purchase said item from multiple retail outlets and get some tangible variance in quality of ingredients and taste.
In the dour and visualised as black and white inter war years , a time of social and economic depression, the sudden arrival of a taste of exotica must have been pretty welcome.
Of course the name Jaffa is derived from the Mediterranean Port of the same name synonymous with the growing and supply of Orange fruit.
For decades the Jaffa Cake maintained its position quietly and unassumingly in the top echelons of baked goods but then in 1991 it came into the gun sights of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and in their attempts to place on it the maximum possible rate of Value Added Tax, at that time recently increased from 8% to 15% and currently at a whopping 20%.
The Revenue policy and classifications levied a zero rate on biscuits and cakes as in very British pragmatism, borne out of the tradition of a tea break in everyday life , such items are necessities and not luxuries.
However, a coating of chocolate on a biscuit does make it a luxury therefore attracting the top rate but a similar coating on a cake does not. In the eyes of the men from the Excise, a Jaffa Cake was a biscuit for their revenue generating purposes.
McVities went all out to prove the opposite argument for one of their best sellers also perhaps fearing that HM Customs and Excise would, if successful in this instance, go after other items from their production line.
The defence worked on the following pretences.
The product's name was regarded as a minor consideration. The ingredients were regarded as similar to those of a cake, producing from a thin cake-like batter rather than the thick dough of a biscuit. The product's texture was regarded as being that of a sponge cake. The product hardens when stale, in the manner of a cake. A substantial part of the Jaffa Cake, in terms of bulk and texture, is sponge.
The Revenue stood by their initial opinion in that ,in size, the Jaffa Cake is more like a biscuit than a cake.The product was generally displayed for sale alongside other biscuits, rather than with cakes. The product is presented as a snack and eaten with the fingers, like a biscuit, rather than with a fork as a cake might be.
To complicate matters the Tribunal overseeing the legal action also considered that children would eat Jaffa Cakes in "a few mouthfuls", in the manner of a sweet.
In the face of considerable pressure from the State it was the ruling of the VAT Tribunal that indeed a Jaffa Cake was a cake and in being covered in chocolate was not therefore at all subject to VAT.
The decision was clear and should have resulted in a National Day of Celebration although more likely to have been with a cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake. A recent ruling by the Irish Government did re-introduce the element of ambiguity and contentiousness by applying a 13.5% VAT rate but tempered from the full prevailing 23% rate on the basis of a 12% moisture content.
Like the filling in a Jaffa Cake in the hot sweaty hands of a devotee the controversy may just run and run.
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