Cakes vs. Biscuits

Two things we learned rather quickly:
1) Biscuits (a.k.a. cookies) are a necessity in England, and they are almost never homemade.
2) Cake is the overarching word for dessert and it is the dessert of choice; for example, it is what you are asked to bring to lots of different events and  it is what the schools sell to earn money (rather than a bake sale).

What's funny is cakes are not taxed but luxury biscuits are (I think luxury biscuits are defined as those that are at least partially covered in chocolate).  Not a huge deal, unless you're the company that makes Jaffa Cakes.

The question is, is it a biscuit or is it a cake?  Here are the factors HM Revenue & Customs considered when making their decision:

• The product’s name was a minor consideration.
• Ingredients:Cake can be made of widely differing ingredients, but Jaffa cakes were made of an egg, flour, and sugar mixture which was aerated on cooking and was the same as a traditional sponge cake. It was a thin batter rather than the thicker dough expected for a biscuit texture.
• Cake would be expected to be soft and friable; biscuit would be expected to be crisp and able to be snapped. Jaffa cakes had the texture of sponge cake.
• Size: Jaffa cakes were in size more like biscuits than cakes.
• Packaging: Jaffa cakes were sold in packages more similar to biscuits than cakes.
• Marketing: Jaffa cakes were generally displayed for sale with biscuits rather than cakes.
• On going stale, a Jaffa cake goes hard like a cake rather than soft like a biscuit.
• Jaffa cakes are presented as a snack, eaten with the fingers, whereas a cake may be more often expected to be eaten with a fork. They also appeal to children, who could eat one in a few mouthfuls rather like a sweet.
• The sponge part of a Jaffa cake is a substantial part of the product in terms of bulk and texture when eaten.

Looking at all the above info, they decided Jaffa Cakes were enough like a cake to be labeled a cake, and thus not taxed.

Idiom

A friend was over today and talking about how chaotic life was at the moment, ending her long list of events with "and the in-laws are having kittens."

I was surprised at such an ending but commented on how that will be fun. 

Oops!  No, someone "having kittens" is a British idiom, or at least one from the North (as that's where she's from and location dramatically affects things like this), which basically means someone is panicking.

Sweets vs. Desserts

Helena usually eats school lunch. There are foods that she's quite used to, like pasta with tomato sauce or fish & chips, but then there are also things like beef rolls or cheese & onion plaits that she's tried and liked.  At times, however, she prefers to take a packed lunch (or what she calls a "pot" lunch, as that's how packed sounds to her when spoken with a British accent).

Last week she asked if she could have dessert in her lunchbox, because there is always dessert with a school lunch.  That sounded very reasonable to me, so I added a pack of gummies.  When I picked her up that afternoon, she was quite concerned "Momma, I can't bring gummies to school.  They are not allowed!"

So this morning I asked about the gummies.  Her teacher replied that they really prefer children not bring sweets to school.  I explained that I was happy with that idea, and that the only reason I'd packed them was because there was always a dessert included with school lunches.  She then went on to explain that dessert to them is a piece of cake, a biscuit, or a chocolate bar.  Those things are fine but not sweets.

As you might guess, this is one of those things that doesn't completely make sense to my North American mind but I'm happy to follow the rules now that I know them!