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by daanlo 1291 days ago
Fun fact(1): The German word Kekse is a Germanization of the term "cakes". Although a biscuit isn't exactly a cake :)

(1) - At least I think it's funny :)

2 comments

> ... a biscuit isn't exactly a cake...

Certainly not. By law. Biscuits are luxury goods, and as such are taxed appropriately, whereas cakes are essential food items, and have a lower tax rate. This culminated in a VAT tribunal in 1991 [0] where the makers of Jaffa Cakes argued that said items were cakes not biscuits, in order to get the lower tax rate. One of the winning arguments was that cakes go stale, while biscuits go soft. I think this could count as precedent for a proper legal definition of the difference between cakes and biscuits. (Of course, American-style cookies aren't biscuits either by this definition.)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa_Cakes#Legal_status

this is an underrated comment that explains the difference between cookie and biscuit in an unambiguous way
The term “cookie” literally means “little cake” from the Dutch “koekje”. The term “biscuit” comes from the French for “twice cooked (cake)”.