To mark – or crunch – this year’s National Biscuit Day, the residents and care team at Bernard Sunley, our Woking-based residential, nursing and dementia care home, have been talking about their favourite biscuits, wafers, cookies and answering the well-known enigma – is a Jaffa Cake® a biscuit or cake?
“We wanted the residents to have a ‘cracking’ time and celebrate ‘all things biscuit’ for this year’s National Biscuit Day,” said Ewelina Wagner, one of the Activity Coordinators at the care home. “The residents love a good cuppa, having a chat with each other and taking part in our regular quizzes and reminiscing sessions, so I put together a fun little ‘spoof’ survey to find out, once and for all, their favourite biscuit, biscuits they loved and enjoyed over the years, and to answer the age-old biscuit mystery of whether or not a Jaffa Cake® is actually a biscuit or a cake.”
According to a recent national poll, the UK’s undisputed favourite biscuit is the well-loved Chocolate Digestive, followed by melt-in-your-mouth Shortbread. Taking third place is the retro Bourbon, the controversial Jaffa Cake® made into fourth spot and the classic Custard Cream came in fifth. “However, the residents had slightly different views,” added Andy Cumper, the Registered Manager at Bernard Sunley.
“To get the residents’ top three biscuits, we asked them what their absolute favourite biscuit was to enjoy with a cup of tea. The results were varied, and tied, so we didn’t actually get an overall winner,” continued Ewelina.
“Taking the biscuit gold medal were joint winners, the classic Chocolate Digestive and another chocolate treat, the Bourbon. Silver was also drawn and awarded to the traditional Custard Cream and Plain Digestive with a stand-alone third place taken by Pink Wafers.
David Lazenby, who made Bernard Sunley his home in May 2025 has very fond memories of Digestive biscuits growing up. “My go-to biscuit as a child was definitely a Digestive,” said David. “My parents had a proper biscuit tin which was always filled to the brim with the delicious sweet-meal treats. However, my current biscuit of choice is the Bourbon as they go so well with all hot drinks – tea, coffee or hot chocolate.”
“As a child I wasn’t fussy, I liked plain or fruit biscuits,” said resident, Dorothy ‘Dot’ Spreadbury, who moved to Bernard Sunley in March this year. “After our parents passed away, my two sisters and I lived with our Aunts, so we always had to share whatever biscuits were in the biscuit tin.”
The age-old conundrum of whether or not a Jaffa Cake® is a biscuit or a cake also received mixed reviews. “It’s definitely a cake,” said David. “With its sponge base, it just can’t be a biscuit. They don’t snap and have no crunch.” A laughing Dot added, “To me they can be either, it just depends on my mood on the day I have one.”
However, on the subject ‘To Dunk, or not To Dunk’, the residents were in 100% agreement. “I am a definitely not a ‘Dunker’,” continued David. “There’s no point, as you lose half, if not all of your biscuit in the cup or mug. It’s a waste of enjoying a good, crunchy and snappy biscuit.”
“I don’t like dunking at all. As children we were told off if we ever tried to dunk,” added Dot. “I’m really not keen on dunked biscuits anyway, I don’t like it when they get all get soggy and mushy.”
“Finally, we asked the residents what type of biscuit they would be and why. Dot said she’d be a Pink Wafer as pink is her favourite colour and the biscuits look elegant, but David got creative saying he’d be crunchy biscuit base topped with milk chocolate as nobody can resist chocolate and sweet biscuit.
“The residents and care team had a ‘cracking’ time taking part in the spoof ‘Biccie’ poll and reminiscing about biscuits. I think we could say that they all had a ‘snappily’ good time,” concluded Ewelina.
Find out more about Bernard Sunley care home by calling 01483 764 300 or emailing [email protected].