How Are Biscuits Different To Cakes? | QI

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This clip is from QI Series B, Episode 7, 'Biscuits' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Rich Hall, Dara Ó Briain and Arthur Smith.

[@danmayberry1185]

"Can't a man have a biscuit?" ... slays me every time.

[@TheGamblermusic]

true marie-antoinettesque

[@Radricgirl]

Same! 😄

[@IndigoIndustrial]

The set up was about 10 sec too long.

[@fds7476]

@@IndigoIndustrial Congratulations, you found the joke.

[@majid7925]

That one never gets old the delivery is just gold

[@notruehippie]

How does Fry rattle off stories like that? Amazing.

[@ordelian7795]

The more stories you tell the better you get at telling them, but you won't get any stories to tell unless you have some form of 'a life' where you interact with people and take risks and live spontaneously.

[@sstills951]

I told him all the stories I know.

[@K1lostream]

@@ordelian7795 You might get the odd story if, let's say, you were the presenter of a TV show that had an entire team of researchers famously known as The Elves.

[@RahRahGreg]

I’ve loved this story for years and years, and goes hand in hand with the napkin ring story.

[@notruehippie]

@@RahRahGreg Oh I see. So Steven Fry has memorized these stories much like I might remember a song. I should have known that. He does have an astounding memory.

[@JackDSparrow]

True, we might all just remember Fry for what they say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is....

[@rubysmith8818]

😆

[@RJSRdg]

Or for not being able to say "Harry pocketed it" in the Harry Potter audio books.

[@JackDSparrow]

Indeed! 😆

[@benwu7980]

@@RJSRdg Did she end up including that in all the books?

[@RJSRdg]

@@benwu7980 I think Book 2 was the one it first appeared in, but yes, every book after that!

[@pjabrony8280]

I tried to tell the Duke of Devonshire anecdote at a party, but my mother of all people interrupted me and said, "Get on with it!" when the essence of the joke is that you go on and on listing the servants to set up the punchline.

[@sanderflop]

that's why the joke only works if you have the charisma and captive audience that won't interrupt you

[@LukeSilverstar1000]

That story about the Duke of Devonshire is fantastic. 😂

[@decodolly1535]

Easy, biscuits go in the smaller tin with "Biscuits" on it, cakes go in the big tin with "Cake" on it.

[@christhomas7905]

Doesn't the word 'cake' in the name of Jaffa Cakes kind of give it away that they're cakes? Cupcakes can fit in a biscuit tin, but they're not biscuits, so your logic there is flawed.

[@peterclarke7240]

You absolute MONSTER! Just because a cake can fit in the biscuit tin, and vice versa, DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE ALLOWED TO PUT THEM IN THE WRONG TIN!!! Good grief, man. What would happen if the vicar came over for tea and you presented him with the cake tin and he saw it contained biscuits?! We'd have to raze your entire street to the ground to atone for your sin!

[@paulhough5941]

But the HMRC are trying to get their dirty mits on more money!

[@decodolly1535]

@@christhomas7905Anything which calls itself a cake but is small enough to fit into the biscuit tin will not survive the journey home from the shop, so that's never been a problem.

[@shaneeslick]

🤔But where do we put a cake that has biscuits as a topping, to save confusion in my belly 😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋

[@philltolkien5082]

Man. Everyone looks so young. I watched QI every Friday night. Great times.

[@davidmartin5145]

We started getting Jaffa Cakes here in my part of the U.S. recently, and I think about this episode every time I see them.

[@Matthew-ut6ed]

Truly, Sir, you have been blessed...

[@peterclarke7240]

And thus our masterplan to take back the US one delicious sugary British treat at a time continues...

[@darinfoat8410]

Stephen really slipped into his General Melchitt voice during that last anecdote.

[@barneylaurance1865]

"hardens when stale" is only one of several factors that can be used to distinguish between a cake and a biscuit. The Wikipedia page for Jaffa Cake lists eight different things that the court considered. Some of them are indicitive of being a cake, some of being a biscuit. There isn't really one single thing proves it one way or the other. Apparently the judge in the Jaffa cake case found 11 "tests of cake".

[@esquilax5563]

So it's much like a psychological disorder in the DSM

[@petethebeak636]

Is it too late to shove "tarts" into this conversation?

[@Varrik159]

@@petethebeak636 Phwoar, never too late for that, knowwaddamean?

[@peterclarke7240]

"The Eleven Tests of Cake" sounds like an Ingmar Battenbergman film.

[@barneylaurance1865]

@@esquilax5563 Yes exactly

[@lonestar2078]

You know you've watched a lot of QI when this is the first time you've seen the video, but you know it's from the same episode as biscuits and gravy, "oh traveller from an arcane land"

[@MichaelCoombes776]

*gesticulating wildly* "What...... do your people..... eat?" "Everything!" Rich didn't speak often but when he did it was gold.

[@jtilton5]

I'm suprised Rich Hall didn't bring up the obvious answer that the difference is that cakes are rarely served with sausage gravy.

[@AndrewTBP]

That's a different clip from the same episode.

[@rachelcookie321]

Who the hell is serving biscuits with gravy? Gross.

[@dielegende9141]

Fun fact: "Keks", the German wird for biscuit, is a Germanised spelling of "cakes"

[@paulsharp3865]

It's also an English word for trousers 😀

[@hanvandijk7810]

The ameamericanrican "cookie" comes form the dutch "koekje". Its not a small jump to "kajk" from the dutch "koek"

[@nicosmind3]

@@paulsharp3865 and to add if you've soiled yourself, least round my way it is

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

Are you really trying to use German shite as some sort of superior example? They know nothing about food.

[@BenjaminGoose]

topkek

[@andrewschmidt5312]

I thought cakes were made with batter (more liquid)and biscuits, at least the ones I am aware of, are made with dough. As are cookies.

[@hannahwootton6491]

So cakes and biscuits you don't pay tax but sanitary items are classed as a luxury hmmmmm

[@ashby7m]

I love this

[@lohphat]

Back when Dara had hair!

[@TechBearSeattle]

Jasper Fforde made a similar case in the second Nursery Crimes novel, The Fourth Bear. The Gingerbread Man -- psychopath and serial killer -- escapes from a prison mental asylum and goes on a murder spree. Bringing him to justice ends up depending on whether he is a biscuit or a cake.

[@peterclarke7240]

Damn you. Now i must purchase said books and read them while demolishing vast quantities of Jaffa Cakes

[@TechBearSeattle]

@@peterclarke7240 - There are only two Nursery Crimes books. Separate, but kind of in the same universe, is the Thursday Next stories, about a woman with the ability to enter stories and change them from inside (Jane Eyre used to be much bleaker until she showed up.) There are seven books in that series.

[@peterclarke7240]

@@TechBearSeattle Ooh, excellent, thank you! I'm a fan of authors like Robert Rankin (his "Toyminator" books about Eddie the grumpy alcoholic Teddy Bear is one of my favourites), so any sort of Far-Fetched Fiction is right up my alley.

[@jasmeenmalhotra2225]

That’s what I immediately thought of!! Incredibly storyteller, is Jasper Fforde.

[@Pewling]

Never had a jaffa cake, but they always seem to be brought up on shows like QI!

[@luc1ferous]

@Debs - Bassist Understatement of the month... says the man capable of inhaling a sleeve of jaffas in under ten seconds.

[@archstanton6102]

Pineapple Jaffa cakes are not that good

[@sstills951]

I imagine they’re as popular as Oreos are here in the states.

[@Matthew-ut6ed]

The absolute Prince of mini-cake-biscuits-whatever... To die for.

[@peterclarke7240]

WE DO NOT SPEAK OF THOSE ABOMINATIONS!!!! I believe the man responsible for those... things... was taken outside and shot by a representative of Her Majesty's Confectionary Constabulary . And that should be the END OF IT!!!

[@old.not.too.grumpy.]

I will remember Fry for saying he likes Sainsbury it keeps the riff-raff out of Waitrose..... he then went on to voice Sainsbury's adverts😂

[@NewMessage]

My pancreas is twitching at the very thought of either.

[@murielhanby6516]

Priceless 😂🤣😅😂🤣😅

[@macdougdoug]

QI might also have told me that biscuits are cooked twice : bis cuit (its french)

[@peterclarke7240]

That is the origin of the word, but it is no longer a requirement of modern biscuits. And yes, it was QI that means that bit of information lives permanently in my head. 😂

[@wordreet]

Yes we learned that as children. So I wanted biscuits even more!!!!!!

[@MichaelCoombes776]

From this episode

[@Gormathius]

"What's a Jaffa Cake, then?" Well the clue is in the name I would've thought.

[@DutchLabrat]

Biscuit means baked twice.

[@dougaltolan3017]

Except biscuits aren't baked twice....

[@DutchLabrat]

@@dougaltolan3017 It is literally what the word means, from latin bis coctus: twice baked. It *is* that simple. If it baked twice it is a biscuit, if not it isn't.

[@barneylaurance1865]

It might mean that in Latin. It doesn't in English.

[@cecilebraillie4471]

Does anyone know what accent this Arthur person (the one next to Rich) has? I find it so grating.

[@nicholascrow8133]

King Alfred was well known, but I wan to know who talked in him into it...

[@bizarrefruit9133]

Fridge cakes go soft. =P

[@Farweasel]

turned out the bloke was making Dog biscuits in the end

[@Suite_annamite]

Some "biscuits" are indeed named "cakes": such as the "gâteaux de Nantes".

[@FireAllOfEverythingAtOnce]

As a Yankee, a cake has 277 ingredients, and a biscuit has 249 ingredients.

[@booperdee2]

I have no idea where the idea that a Jaffa Cake is a buiscuit even came from. Theyre soft, and springy, and called CAKES for god sake. If a cake is something that goes hard when stale, and a biscuit goes soft when stale, that necessarily means that cakes are soft, otherwise they couldnt get hard, and biscuits are hard, otherwise they wouldnt be able to go soft The moisture in the cake leaves it, biscuits gain the air moisture. It hurts my brain that this is even an argument that came up anywhere

[@peterclarke7240]

It's because the VAT man tried to insist that, despite their name, they were in fact biscuits due to their shape and size. McVities fought the case and won, thus depriving the British coffers of millions upon millions of pounds.

[@deaddoll1361]

@@peterclarke7240 No real loss as the government would have squandered it anyway.

[@peterclarke7240]

@@deaddoll1361 At the time (1991) I suspect one of the Tories would have trousered it to pay for their moat to be cleaned.

[@dougaltolan3017]

Jaffa Cakes were packaged and sold as biscuits. Supermarkets place them with biscuits. I dare say there are, some vile people that dunk them in tea as well.

[@KillerQ93]

That’s why we call biscuits: biscuits, cookies: cookies, cakes: cakes, pastries: pastries and not everything is pudding lol. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

[@donainscough6598]

Different from, not different to.

[@kalisthenes6650]

Got to Canada a few years back. Could not get over the stale biscuits. I now realize that cookies are actually cakes.

[@steveb1972]

Noticed Rich didn’t say a word, after all he knows biscuits as savoury scones covered in spunk! 🤣

[@bevanderson6245]

"Different from" NOT "different to."

[@CharlieQuartz]

Both are perfectly acceptable along with “different than.” This message brought to you by the Descriptivists Guild.

[@The-Demon-Cola]

Again - I don't think Rich Hall understands what we brits are on about.

[@darinfoat8410]

He's just got one of those faces that looks perpetually befuddled.

[@petethebeak636]

Dark Blue - Rich Hall is a wise man, to not be caught up in the frenzy of cake,pies tarts, and biscuits. ( All though you have to know he wouldn't want to try to guess, instead just reference a culinary professor.

[@BBQAndButter]

Taste the biscuit.

[@iggymikeable]

Can you still buy Abbey crunch?

[@decodolly1535]

Unfortunately no. They were replaced by Hob-Nobs which, in my opinion, are nowhere near as tasty as a nice Abbey Crunch.

[@Brewermb]

Naughty: different from...not different to😁😁

[@barneylaurance1865]

VAT isn't really a tax on luxury items. I don't think chocolate biscuits (cookies for the Americans) are really considered luxury items. VAT is just a tax on consumption in general, with exceptions carved out for most foods. Crisps also have 20% VAT. Not essential but also really not what you would call luxury items.

[@silvasilvasilva]

I don't think he said it's a tax on luxury items, but rather that it applies to chocolate biscuits because they are not a basic foodstuff (which, as you said, won't pay VAT in most cases).

[@salaciousone]

@@silvasilvasilva you could be right. I certainly consider cake as a basic foodstuff.

[@jordivermeulen2519]

Luxury, definition 1: "a material object, service, etc., conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity." In this sense, both chocolate biscuits and crisps would be luxury items. I suspect chocolate cakes are not classified as such because there are probably other things that are technically cakes that are eaten regularly as part of certain diets.

[@silvasilvasilva]

@@jordivermeulen2519 Potatoes in any way, shape or form a luxury? Not for the Brits, sir.

[@dielaughing73]

@@salaciousone this very question helped decide Australia's 1993 federal election when John Hewson struggled to explain whether a birthday cake would be subject to his proposed Goods and Services Tax.

[@MartinAhlman]

You should all try a "Ballerina". Sweden checking in...

[@frankupton5821]

Different FROM cakes, please.

[@Peter-J-King]

"different from"

[@Chimera_Photography]

Pro Tip - When a Brit says something is “quite” something? It means it’s not… A compliment anywhere else can be used as a slap in the face by a Brit 😂

[@smoothrocky1847]

And that was a *Q*uite *I*nteresting observation. ;-)

[@jlaurence3519]

Always means something is a little whatever. So quite nice usually means a little nice.

[@frankupton5821]

Are you quite sure?

[@Christopher_Clark]

It's quite simple; 'quite' means either completely or a lot or a bit or a little or almost none.

[@smoothrocky1847]

Are these replies getting quite annoying? If so, it’s quite likely we’ll have to console ourselves with quite a lot of Jaffa Cakes. ;-)

[@ellicooper2323]

Like, what’s the difference between Johnny cake and ginger bread? Anyone outside the US know?

[@rachelcookie321]

What’s Johnny cake? I’ve never heard of it before.

[@ellicooper2323]

@@rachelcookie321 Johnny cake is a bread made with molasses, good with baked beans. Ginger bread is a cake, served with lemon curd and whipped cream. Both yum

[@rachelcookie321]

@@ellicooper2323 I thought gingerbread was a biscuit. Like a gingerbread house or a gingerbread man. Those definitely aren’t cakes.

[@ellicooper2323]

@@rachelcookie321 no, baked in a cake pan, softer. Tastes like a cookie,(biscuit) though.

[@jake6112]

Ooh they had big nobs then!

[@thesubhumancomedy]

För varrann. Ok Vi ska ut i kylan igen

[@thesubhumancomedy]

För varannan. lost there. Glad we have you

[@thesubhumancomedy]

See all, all good. I doubt.

[@GaryLum]

I thought biscuit meant cooked twice.

[@barneylaurance1865]

Maybe it does in french, but this clip is in English.

[@martijnmusschoot]

davies says that cakes are soft java cakes are soft... so why does he say it's an exception?

[@rachelcookie321]

Because he thinks they’re biscuits. Jaffa cakes are generally treated like biscuits.

[@cecilebraillie4471]

I was asking myself the same thing, well spotted.

[@thewrens_]

@@rachelcookie321 That's a good point! We treat biscuits and cakes differently, socially. Biscuits are snacks to be eaten casually, but you usually find cakes only at parties/celebrations, or in the cases where they aren't (i.e. small slices in cafes, or cupcakes) they're treated as a dessert. Jaffa cakes are treated like biscuits in that way, you can buy them in big tube packs (like oreos!) and snack on them. I've never seen anyone buy a tube of cupcakes. imo jaffa cakes are cakes treated like biscuits in the way same a tomato is a fruit treated like a vegetable.

[@Magmafrost13]

I think it should be pointed out that while Im sure the Duke in question was a self-important aristorcratic prick, his no doubt selfish intentions did save the pastry chef from an almost certain and almost certainly pointless death.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

Jaffa cakes are an abomination created by the devil. They _are_ tasty, though.

[@rowejon]

Grammar fault, different FROM, similar TO.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

Good

[@ThePurpleCheesecakeZebra]

what about cheesecake that doesnt go hard when stale

[@christhomas7905]

Yeah and ironically the base of made of broken digestive biscuits lol 😆

[@JDB2552]

Biscuits are different from cakes because you don’t eat cakes with gravy.

[@MerkhVision]

As a fellow American I gotta say this comment must be really confusing for the Brits, cuz to them “biscuit” means something entirely different than it does to us! I assume that was your humorous intent, but in case you were actually being serious and don’t know, what the British call “biscuits” are what we call “cookies!” And to all the Brits who are disgusted by the idea that we put gravy on cookies, our biscuits are sort of like round scones, but not sweet. Also like English muffins, but I don’t think y’all call those that over there lol. I’ve heard that the English don’t actually eat “English muffins” but I don’t know how true that is lol.

[@helenbartoszek243]

Yuk, who eats biscuits with gravy? Especially a chocolate biscuit, I couldn't think of anything worse to eat. Except Brussel sprouts!

[@drumlightable]

@@MerkhVision Yes but we just call them muffins same as what we call American football is just football to you. Distinguishing between savory English muffins and the sweet muffins you'd find somewhere like Dunkin' is entirely by context. My biggest issue with American biscuits is the shortening, even with gravy they seem very dry and as if could be improved with large amounts of butter.

[@leepreston9637]

@@drumlightable American biscuits are always better with lots of butter!

[@leepreston9637]

@@helenbartoszek243 brussel sprouts are delicious. Especially sauteed with a light sprinkling parmesan cheese.

[@RFC-3514]

The title of this video raises another question, which the poster should investigate: "How is 'from' different from 'to'?"

[@RoderickEtheria]

Biscuit is crumbly bread. Cake is frosted bread.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

do on biscuit then evolve!

[@marycanary86]

i miss the racking on stephen for being posh

[@geoffgeoff143]

They all sat around watching it go stale

[@samsonsoturian6013]

The difference is the amount of sugar added.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

Well...

[@electricfootballhero1349]

You're all over thinking this. A cake is a desert. A biscuit is best served with gravy. Learn to cookie.

[@AndrewTBP]

Southern USA biscuits and gravy are unknown in the UK. Those baked goods are "scones" in the UK.

[@zutroy85]

And the Duke of Devonshire is precisely why more civilised nations cut the heads off their aristocracy centuries before

[@Nastyswimmer]

Different FROM ffs!

[@andyjay9346]

The difference? I learnt at school the word biscuit came from a French word which had Latin origin Bis, meaning twice or two, and cuit meaning cake, a cake that had been cooked twice, once each side. Guess they don't teach stuff like this at schools anymore. 🧆🧆

[@dougaltolan3017]

Yeah coz biscuits are only baked once.

[@chrisballard7594]

Dam that was funny

[@litigioussociety4249]

As an American, the question means something completely different. The difference between an American biscuit and cake would probably be the amount of sugar.

[@barneylaurance1865]

I don't know, I think American biscuits are probably still harder than cakes. It looks like you can pick up and hold an uncooked biscuit, but an uncooked cake would just run through your fingers.

[@burnere633]

Incidentally, this bit is preceded by a discussion with Rich on what American's call biscuits.

[@litigioussociety4249]

@@barneylaurance1865 There are crumbly type biscuits that are a little bit harder, but most people make them soft or flaky.

[@brucefreadrich1188]

As a Canadian (half way between American and Britain vocabulary-wise), when they say "biscuit" they mean "cookie." What you think of as a "biscuit" is more like what would be called a "scone" in the U.K.

[@TJonLongIsland]

In the US, biscuits are salty and not sweet..

[@helenbartoszek243]

Wouldn't that be a cracker then?

[@WrathOfGrapesN7]

They're also closer to plain scones, than they are to biscuits.

[@abigailfoster2467]

Fry would of course correctly say How are biscuits different FROM cakes?

[@ericstelzman5190]

We call them cookies.

[@deaddoll1361]

You also call football soccer.

[@sstills951]

@@deaddoll1361 we also went to the moon.

[@helenbartoszek243]

Cookies are quite different from biscuits

[@voland6846]

@@sstills951 Yanks really are the definition of "peaked in highschool" lmao

[@sstills951]

@@voland6846 are we friends now?

[@thedeceptivekhan]

How is it there's an American on the panel and not once did he correct them with the term "cookie"?

[@gvendurst]

Because he knows that would be the last thing he ever did

[@silvasilvasilva]

Because that would be extremely boring.

[@deaddoll1361]

It's a British show, so that wouldn't be a correction. He'd just be another insufferable American unable to deal with a conversation that doesn't revolve around them.

[@sstills951]

@@deaddoll1361 have American guests been historically ‘insufferable’ on these shows? Or are you just venting?

[@thedeceptivekhan]

@@sstills951 I just put milk in the cup before the tea to watch the chaos that ensued.

[@matthewparker9276]

Cakes are baked from batter, biscuits baked from dough.

[@naryanr]

Arthur Smith puts me to sleep.

[@thesubhumancomedy]

You too. ok?

[@leepreston9637]

Easy cakes are something you put icing on while biscuits are something you put sausage gravy on.

[@JameZayer]

Murican approaches don't apply to a British Program. As 'Buttermilk biscuits" are the same as British Scones. Meanwhile Murican SKownEs closer resemble a fruit-cake that contains too little butter and too few fruit.

[@MerkhVision]

This comment must seem really disgusting to a Brit haha

[@dougaltolan3017]

Biscuits are what you dunk in your tea.

[@zweigackroyd7301]

How are biscuits different FROM cakes. Fixed it. See if I can stir up some good transatlantic hostility.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

"different to cake"? Do they not even teach kids how to talk anymore?