Jaffa Cakes are small cakes which were originally introduced to the British public in the 1940s by the McVitie's Biscuit Company. Many Britons have become quite fond of Jaffa Cakes, and a number of companies have tried to capitalize on the phenomenon by making their own version. Any stores which carry British imports ought to carry Jaffa Cakes, and they can also be ordered from specialty retailers. In the United Kingdom, of course, Jaffa Cakes are on offer at almost every establishment which sells food items.

There are three parts to the Jaffa Cake: a sponge cake-like layer, a layer of orange jelly, and a coating of dark chocolate. These cakes are designed to be circular and bite sized, and the lightweight sponge cake can be deceptive; consumers often find themselves eating more Jaffa Cakes than they had intended. McVitie's offers several sizes of Jaffa Cakes, along with an array of variations with fillings like lime and berry, although its classic orange Jaffas remain a consistent seller.

These cakes are named for Jaffa oranges, sweet oranges native to Israel. The exact composition of the “smashing orange bit” in the middle of Jaffa Cakes is a bit of a mystery, although it did presumably contain Jaffa oranges at one point. The original Jaffa Cakes are a marriage of excellent flavors, combining slightly bitter dark chocolate with complementary sweet orange and a neutral base of sponge cake.

The precise identity of the Jaffa Cake as a cake or cookie, also known as a biscuit in the United Kingdom, has been a topic of heated debate. In fact, McVitie's once found itself in court defending the identity of the Jaffa Cake as a cake, not a biscuit. While this debate might seem petty, rates of taxation for cakes and cookies are different in the United Kingdom, so for McVitie's, this was a very serious issue.

As it turns out, Jaffa Cakes are classified as cakes on the grounds that they are soft when fresh and they turn hard when stale. McVitie's actually brought a giant Jaffa Cake to the courthouse for the trial as a demonstration piece to defend the Jaffa Cake's honor. Despite the eventual court verdict in the matter, the debate still continues, with many people arguing that the Jaffa Cake is really a biscuit, based on its size and composition.

While McVitie's remains the Jaffa Cake benchmark for many people, it is also possible to purchase Jaffa Cakes from Cadbury, Bahlsen, and the French manufacturer Lefevra-Utile, which calls Jaffa Cakes Pims.