A biscuit sized sponge cake available in the UK that consists of a thin sponge base with a jelly like orange layer coated with Chocolate topping (Other layer/topping combinations have become available). Also a cocktail consisting of 2 parts vodka, 1 part coffee liqueur - mix in a tall glass with ice and top up with orange juice - tastes remarkably like the cake described above.

Serving suggestion: Microwaved Jaffa Cakes are mighty fine fare - give one a blast for not longer than 10 seconds (at the most) and it becomes a different beast.
What happens is that the biscuit base part stays exactly the same temperature (because it doesn't contain any water), but the orange jelly becomes lovely and gooey and the chocolate melts. Try it, it's great.

Warning: Because the base is cool you can easily have a Microwave Jaffa that has napalm-like jelly but appears to be cold.
This leads to nasty burning of the roof of the mouth.

Serving Suggestion: Turn the jaffa-cake upside down, and press into its base with your thumb, making a depression. Fill this depression with Archers peach schnapps. Within a few seconds, the Archers will have soaked into the cake stuff, and the depression can be refilled. Now your jaffa-cake has gone from delicious to fantastic. I have no idea how I discovered this.

Legal Bit: A High-court ruling has shown that jaffa-cakes are in fact cakes, not biscuits. That is surprising since they are generally packaged, marketed and sold as biscuits. It is an important distinction because in the UK cakes are exempt from VAT, whereas biscuits are adjudged "confectionary" and are taxed.

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legal info from http://www.cliftoningram.co.uk/update28.htm#jaffa

If you liked jaffa cakes and archers, you'll love Lebkuchen and Jägermeister, another great-tasting crazy idea from hugo rune.

Are Jaffa Cakes Biscuits?

Jaffa Cakes are one of the best things that could happen to you during a teabreak. Or anytime in fact. I know they've got me through a fair bit of revision in my time. Somehow, the 'smashing orangey bit' convinces me that ploughing on through the dullness isn't quite as bad as, say, having your teeth filed.

The question has long been debated (amongst bored and stoned students anyway): are they a cake? Or a biscuit? Though let's face it, to most, this is not an important question. That doesn't mean that everyone doesn't have their own answer. For instance, I tend to point out to those that care that they are called Jaffa Cakes for a reason. My best friend contests this with the fact that in the supermarket, she buys them from the biscuit aisle.

They are manufactured in the UK by McVities, and have been around now for nigh on 60yrs. However, back in 1991 they ran into a little trouble with HM Government. The darstardly VAT man feasted his eyes on the humble Jaffa Cakes and decided that he wanted a slice of the action.

Unfortunately, the VAT system for food in Britain is a little odd, some foods being subject to the tax while other similar foods aren't. The circus revolves around the archaic scheme of 'basic food stuffs'. For instance, oranges are considered to be 'basic food stuff' and so aren't subject to VAT. Orange juice however isn't considered a basic food stuff, and so the VAT man gets his 17.5% from its sale.

And so it is with cakes. Cakes are a basic food stuff. Biscuits are NOT a basic food stuff. If Jaffa Cakes (having previously been classified as being cakes) were to be classified as biscuits, then McVities owed the Government a large wad of moulah in back-dated tax. McVities, for obvious reasons, weren't too happy about this change and so contested it in court.

And so the cake? biscuit? question suddenly became very important. McVities won the dispute, apparently by arguing that when exposed to air and allowed to become stale, cake would go hard while biscuits would soften. I am to assume from this logic that an exposed Jaffa Cake goes hard, but to be honest, I've never encountered such a thing to happen. In my experience, all Jaffa Cakes tend to be eaten with 2.5mins of the packet being opened, and so are never able to become stale in the first place.

As an extra to convince the Judge overseeing the dispute, McVities baked a 12" diameter Jaffa Cake to bring into the court and prove its cakey-ness. I personally call this bribery, but maybe I'm just jealous.