Ok, being from The States, I am obviously unaware of many of your food products, but when I read fic that someone named Wesley got a package of Jaffa Cakes, I went, )

I just wish we could cough easily and cheaply coughget them here!

James

Jaffa Cakes are pretty cool. They were one of my favourite treats when I was a kid. Traditionally, there's a specific way to eat them.

You have to nibble all the way round and take away the edges, then eat the chocolate coating off, then peel the orangey bit off the top and eat it on its own, (its a kind of jelly substance, so it usually peels off in one piece) then eat the cake base last.

Taste good and provide hours (well, minutes) of fun.

LabRat

You guys have Jaffa cakes in the UK, LabRat? Here in NZ we have Jaffas - little round reddy-orange balls with a candy-ish exterior and chocolate on the inside. The exterior (I think, it's been so long since I've had one) is orangey flavoured...or something.

Sounds as if the flavours are similar to Jaffa cakes. Probably the flavours originated from them. NZ got many other things from the UK after all...

~Anna.

Jaffa Cakes are a flat, round cake base, a tangy orange jelly centre and covered in chocolate.

LabRat

Okay...definitely the same sorts of flavours. But different substances containing those flavours.

Do you guys have Jaffas over there, LabRat?

~Anna.

Jaffa Cakes:



And you can also read all about them .

I prefer to eat my Jaffa cakes the same way as I eat any other biscuit, however


Wendy

There are now several companies making them in several different flavours, but mostly the ones that aren't the originals taste weird. There is only one true Jaffa.

What? Sacrilege!

LabRat

Not wishing to blow your minds, but despite assumptions for once, Jaffa Cakes are not an exclusively British snack.

I have travelled around a lot of Eastern Europe, and seen many different variations of the Jaffa cake. They are all yummy, although there's something about the genuine McVitties version that adds a certain je ne sais quoi. I don't know if it's the thickness of the chocolate or the softness of the cake, or the tanginess of the orange, but McVitties just have that edge to them.

Yum.

I once had a friend who found himself homeless and broke for a few weeks. He stayed on my sofa, and paid rent in Jaffa Cakes, vodka and doing the dishes. One of the best housemates I had

Helga

I remember reading a long post about these (might not have been here, though) which debated whether these are cakes or biscuits... *lol* Something about taxes and god only knows what else. It was hilarious!

Anyhow.... I don't believe we have those over here. Maybe in English-speaking Canada, but I'd never heard about them until a few months ago. They look real yummy, though, so I guess I'll start planning a trip to England. hehehe!

Don't remember the thread, but, yes, that's right. They're thought of as biscuits here in the UK, but they really are proper cakes. In the UK, companies are taxed differently depending on whether it's a chocolate biscuit or a cake and McVities had a big row with the taxman over how much they should pay. The taxman insisted Jaffa Cakes were chocolate biscuits, so were liable for VAT, and McVities insisted they were cakes. McVities eventually went to the trouble of baking a huge version of a Jaffa cake to prove their point - and won. Not least because the cake went stale after a few days and that's the main difference between biscuits and cakes. Biscuits go soft when they go off and cakes go hard.

Here's Wiki's take on it:

LabRat

Taxation debate over cakes and biscuits? Now there is a proper basis for a tea party!

Basically the idea is that food is zero-rated for tax, but "luxury" foods - biscuits, most bottled and canned fizzy drinks, restaurant meals and a couple of other things - are taxed at 17.5%, like most non-food items (the other big exception is books and magazines, also zero-rated). It's complicated and occasionally arbitrary, e.g. the "cake versus biscuits" thing, but the tax is always included in the price of the item so you don't get any nasty surprises.

The tax-free status of books is occasionally complicated too - the books themselves are tax-free, but if they're in some sorts of presentation case they're not (this may have changed now, I'm a bit out of touch with that part of publishing). Role playing games (with a box containing three books, maybe a few counters, and a couple of plastic dice) also used to fall into this grey area - it's one of the reasons why they're almost all sold as books these days, with dice etc. as extras.

Actually, that was a reference to the Boston Tea Party .

I noticed - but the rationale, such as it is, is a little warped. Don't tax the things people live on, just the luxuries that make life worth living.

I couldn't agree more. I tried one with raspberry-flavoured jelly once - and only once. There's nothing like true Jaffa. Which reminds me, it has been ages since I had some.
Then, again, I liked them much better when I was still a kid.

Jaffa, kree! Food!

If I understand this thread correctly, the difference between a biscuit and a cake is that the biscuit (if it is chocolate-covered) is a luxury food and the cake is not?

That's weird to me. I live in the States, and over here a biscuit is bread baked in a small round loaf and usually flavored with butter and sometimes jelly or jam (I like strawberry myself). There are those who prefer to use them to sop up the gravy from whatever else they're eating (but not with jelly inside them), and they are definitely not a luxury food. Cakes are usually dessert or sweet snack food and are usually covered with sweet icing (although not always with the icing part).

Out of curiosity, what do you Brits call the thing that us bluecoats call a biscuit? And how much is a rasher, anyway?

Whatever the answer, I'm going to chalk this up to being just one more example of us being divided by a common language.

I always get confused with hearing Americans talking about 'biscuits'. Because although I know the word isn't used for the same item that we use it for (being in NZ we've naturally inherited a lot of terms from the UK), I have a hard time picturing your type of 'biscuits'... I suppose you call what we call biscuits, cookies? Right?

~Anna.

This is a biscuit:



It's kind of like a scone or crumpet, but not as sweet. Generally, it's also more flaky and buttery. Sometimes more airy, depending on who's making it.

It should not be confused with a dog biscuit:



These are saltines, which are a type of thin, airy cracker:



But a "tea biscuit" like this would also be considered a type of cracker:



In fact, all of the things here are crackers:



This is a cookie:



These are also cookies:



And, of course... This is a cookie monster:



Clear?

LOL, Paul. And thanks. I keep coming across saltines in books (the character usually eats them with soup) and I always wondered what they were but never got up the energy to actually go look them up.

LabRat (one more mystery solved...)

PS - oh, just one thing. Are they actually salty to taste, as I keep imagining they are from the name?

Glad I could solve the mystery, then.

And yes, they are salty, as the name suggests. The dough itself isn't particularly anything. It's not salty or sweet. It's pretty dry. Just something thin and crunchy, really. But it's then sprinkled liberally with salt crystals. Kind of like a pretzel, but with less taste and substance.

They're usually served with soup. Alternatives would be oyster crackers or croutons, which serve the same purpose. You get something to mix or crumble into the soup, or to idly and mindlessly chew on when the soup is gone and you know it'll be a while before the main meal arrives.

Meantime... Just finally checked out the article on Jaffa Cakes. According to Wiki, they're named for Jaffa Oranges (which are, of course, named for the city of Jaffa in Israel). Interesting.

So, different pronunciation. Still... I can't help but hear the voice in my head...

"Huzzah! We have freed ourselves - and the whole galaxy! - from Goa'uld oppression! This calls for a celebration! Jaffa, cake!"

(Which, yeah... not so different from Terry's comment. But that's how it sounds in my head.)

Hmmmmm. In Swedish, we call all kinds of crackers "kex". It doesn't matter whether they are sweet or salty. Cookies are either kex or "kakor" (one "kaka" - many "kakor".)

This, however, is a typical "kaka" to me:



I don't know if you can see it, but this "kaka" has no icing or filling of any sort. It is a relatively boring and very typical "kaka". Here is another "kaka", equally typical:



Boring. Blah.

This is a much nicer "kaka", with some delicious filling:



This is something even nicer, a "tårta"! I find it so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that English-speaking people would just call it a "cake"!



This is a traditional "jordgubbstårta". It has sponge bottoms and a filling of cream and strawberries, and then it's decorated with cream and strawberries, too.

We Swedes eat "jordgubbstårta" a lot at this time of year, around midsummer. And I would like it to have a more impressive English name than just a "cake"!

Ann

Hmm. The second picture looks suspiciously like a bread to me. Banana bread, for example, can seem somewhat cake-like:


But I guess it would depend on texture and such, since pound cake can also have a very similar appearance:



For the record, though, I believe your "tarta," though in the cake family, could actually be classified as a torte ( pictures ), a distinction Bobby Bigmouth would be sure to make. (Not to be confused with "tart," which is a sweet and sour fruit pastry resembling a dense pie.)

(Apologies to our friends on dial-up. Hadn't meant to make things so picture-intensive here all of a sudden...)

Ooooh. Pretty cake pictures. /me suddenly feels hungry.

Saltines sound like they'd be much nicer with soup than bread. Although, I guess with my blood pressure I'm barred, even if I could buy them here.

LabRat (off to find lunch...)

Oh! A torte! That's it, Paul! I'll call our "jordgubbstårta" a strawberry torte from now on!

Ann

There are low-sodium saltines too (completely unstalted)... though not as yummy. The ingredients are just white flour, shortening, yeast, and baking soda, but I could sit and eat an entire box of saltines as is, though I prefer the salted versions.

They taste really good with a little cream cheese spread on top too... actually, with all the differences in food and names... do you have cream cheese in the various locations listed in the thread, as we know it in the States? It's just like it sounds: a soft, spreadable, yummy cheese (usually used on bagels).

And then, of course, there is the ultimate in chocolatey goodness. Behold! The fudge brownie:



Is it a cake? Is it a cookie? Whatever it is, it is gooooood.

The thing is, it occurred to me that bread also has salt in it. So it's entirely possible that if you did a comparison the saltines would have less salt than bread. Who knows? Sometimes, the results of a comparison are unexpected and the item you thought would have the most of...whatever...actually doesn't. Always pays to check.

LabRat

ooh this all looks so good!!
I'm suddenly very in the mood for something sweet!!