Yaffa Cakes and Other Britishisms (2021). Artist book; photo essay printed on a dot-matrix printer, hand-bound, self published. Edition of 48.
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The following is an excerpt from the book:
Strolling down the confectionery aisle of your favorite local grocery store—preferably a Waitrose or a Spinneys—you would be hard-pressed to find a bite-sized snack that oozes British imperialism quite like the sweet orange jam filling (centre? British spelling) of a Jaffa Cake.
Recently I was asked a question by favourite British snack expert, Darah Ghanem, regarding the origins of Jaffa Cakes. More specifically, she was referring to the ‘Jaffa’ in the name and hypothesized that its namesake was actually the Palestinian city of Yaffa, which is famous for its oranges. A quick Google search confirmed this, but a slightly more extensive one retold the story in a revised manner. The revision concerns the geopolitical placement of the city of Yaffa.
Brought into the spotlight in 2016 through a cameo on the first episode of the Great British Bake Off (which only serves to confirm its Britishness), several news outlets asked the very same question: Why are Jaffa Cakes called Jaffa Cakes?
Serina Sandhu, writing for iNews in the UK, explains that the name Jaffa refers to the oranges used in making the jam. She also points out that McVities say the oranges used to flavo(u)r the centre are “a variety which can be linked to the ancient port city of Jaffa in Israel”. Carefully tiptoeing around the elephant in the salon, the McVities website tells this story:
McVitie & Price introduced the Jaffa Cake in 1927. It contained a simple combination of sugar and tangerine oil to form the sealed layer of jam. The cakes were named after the Jaffa oranges which flavour the zesty centre of the cake.
In 1927, however, the city of Yaffa existed in British Mandatory Palestine, 21 years before the Nakba and the formation of the state of Israel.
Read more through a scanned version of the book here.