How much food can you cram into your face in 60 seconds? That was the question 14 brave souls tried to answer at Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 during an attempt to break a World Record for eating the most Jaffa Cakes in a minute.
The contestants came in confident, as the bar seemed to be set pretty low at only 8 jaffa cakes in the allotted time. However, soon after the contest began, reality set in and everyone knew that this would be a tough record to beat.
- Jaffa Cake image from Wiki Commons
You are probably asking yourself, what the heck is a Jaffa cake and why are they so hard to eat quickly? Well my friend, a Jaffa cake is made of spongy cake topped with orange jelly that is then covered on one side with chocolate. The cake is about 2.5 inches in diameter, about the same size as a soft batch cookie.
Why are they hard to eat fast? The rules for breaking the world record state that you can’t drink water during the minute you are eating the cakes. As a result, the spongy part of the cake dries your mouth out very quickly.
- This contestant ate an impressive 7 Jaffa cakes in one minute
The rules only allow you to eat one cake at a time and you must completely swallow each cake before putting the next one in your mouth. This requirement makes for some interesting mouth checks by officials after each cake is swallowed.
Some contestants mentioned that the spongy cake was sticking to the roof of their mouth and the jelly layer of the cake also made it difficult to get the cake down quickly. Some speculated that eating the cakes chocolate side up would minimize the risk of the spongy part stinking to the top of your mouth.
Chewing more thoroughly didn’t seem to help and most contestants agreed that taking quick bites then trying to swallow the cake soon after was the best method of attack. Some contestants broke each cake into smaller pieces which made eating the Jaffa cakes more manageable.
Spectators at the Austin Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 watched with great interest and everyone was pulling for someone to break the world record. Some of the eaters remarked that competing in the contest was like eating inside of a fish bowl.
Sadly, the contestants went down one after the other
Despite the fanfare, no one was ever able to get through the 8th cake to tie the World Record.
We all decided that the key to winning was speed. To tie the record, you must average one cake every 7 seconds or so. Most averaged about 4 cakes in one minute, some could only manage 2. Everyone had a hard time swallowing after the first couple of cakes.
It didn’t matter how young or old the contestants were, no one could unlock all the Jaffa cake eating secrets.
Keeping your mouth moist is key so that you can get each cake down as well. Many contestants said that they wished they had practiced using a cake or two before attempting to beat the record to familiarize themselves with the proper technique.
So no world record broken this time, but everyone had fun and there were plenty of lessons learned for the next time
In the end, this man did get the 8th (and world record tying) cake in his mouth just as time expired, but he didn’t have time to chew it enough to swallow.
So was the world record attempt a failure? Of course not! In the end, there are no losers in an eating contest where the food that’s being eaten is delicious!
How many cakes do you think you can eat in a minute? Let us know in the comments section!
Happy world record attempting,
Peter
i ate 2,000,0000