Jaffa Cakes are... an existential crisis!
How a biscuit gave lawyers and philosophers nightmares
In secondary school, I remember one day at lunch when my friend pulled out some Jaffa Cakes that his mum had wrapped in clingfilm and put in his Minecraft lunchbox (we shockingly weren’t the most popular kids at school). We all then begged him for some, to which he replied “No way! These are my favourite biscuits!”. This stumped me, because I always thought they were cakes, not biscuits. It IS in the name, after all. A predictable argument then ensued, with half of us saying Jaffa Cakes are obviously cakes, while the other swearing they were biscuits. While I can look back on that now and smile, I still think about which one it is, and the more research I did, I fell down a legal psychological rabbi hole I never expected to...
In 1991, the department of the UK government responsible for the collection of taxes (HMRC) filed a lawsuit against the people that make Jaffa Cakes (McVitie’s) regarding the classification of their orange chocolatey delicacy and whether they were cakes or biscuits. HMRC argued that Jaffa Cakes were biscuits because they are small, round, and often eaten with tea and because of the taxing laws in the UK, this meant they could have VAT on every Jaffa Cake sold, taxing 20% of their sales. However, McVitie's argued they were cakes, which are zero-rated for VAT in the UK. The court ruled in favour of McVitie's, so the Jaffa Cake remained a cake, and is still one (as of writing this article).
So, why is this even a debate then? Jaffa Cakes are clearly cakes, so why do some rule in favour of the biscuit? Well, I think it’s down to one thing: Cognitive Dissonance Reduction. When new information contradicts deeply held beliefs, it causes mental discomfort. People prefer to dismiss the truth rather than change their minds so in the case of Jaffa Cakes, people would rather try and argue an incorrect point then to adjust to a correct one. This taken to the extreme is how we get mass conspiracies and crazy theories that way too many people believe; it’s better to try and find reasons why YOU are in the right instead of admitting defeat.
However, the issue with Jaffa Cakes is different to just saying “the moon landing was fake!” because of subjectivity. While there are logistics and rules behind what constitutes as a cake or a biscuit, I’d be surprised if anyone arguing on either side actually knew them, because the average root of the debate stems from what a cake or a biscuit is to a person. What one individual might perceive a cake to be is different to what another would say. In society, we are instructed and told things about the world, and we all collectively believe it because it apparently makes the most sense. But once you start to breakdown these social boundaries and preconceived notions about reality, everything falls apart. What is a cake or a biscuit? Why do we categorise things as such? Is anything even real?
Ultimately, I do not think that a Jaffa Cake has actually broken the rules of philosophy, but I do think it raises important questions about our own beliefs and whether or not they go against the most logical answer, and why we believe that to be the case. So, to everyone who believes Jaffa Cakes are biscuits, just think about Occam’s razor and know that your illogical thinking only damages you!
