"You fail Paul": Bake Off breaks the internet with controversial fig roll challenge

They nearly broke the internet.

Bake Off fans were plunged into a furious Twitter debate over whether or not fig rolls are cakes or biscuits after this year’s amateur bakers were tasked with making the sweet treats during the Biscuit Week technical challenge.

“Twitter is about to go into meltdown,” tweeted one fan. “Fig Rolls: Be they biscuits, or be they cakes? #GBBO.”

Cue the confusion:

https://twitter.com/deutschmikey/status/1168968681780649987

https://twitter.com/UKpounda/status/1168968648746242050

Arguments were thrown out for fig rolls being biscuits - including one fan who claimed their home in the biscuit aisle in Asda proves they are biscuits:

https://twitter.com/clare_braham/status/1168969761386110976

https://twitter.com/ecklefecken/status/1168969713990492160

https://twitter.com/LrnDanielle12/status/1168970013916766208

But some were adamant that Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith were mistaken – with one claiming Wikipedia lists fig rolls as cakes. And if Wikipedia says they’re cakes…

https://twitter.com/NMKriznik/status/1168969648680947718

https://twitter.com/BarbsieTaylor/status/1168970148524503042

https://twitter.com/Jess5_11/status/1168968859140993024

https://twitter.com/big_man_joshyy/status/1168970668345630721

https://twitter.com/jonoread/status/1168969387723886592

Thankfully we asked olive editor Laura Rowe to settle the debate: so are fig rolls biscuits or cakes?

“The fig roll is definitely a biscuit,” she told Radiotimes.com. “It’s not like a Jaffa Cake, which has an actual sponge for a base (i.e. that makes it a cake!). It has a firm bite to it, more like pastry, if we’re being pedantic.

“And it has enough integrity to withstand dunking in tea. For those reasons alone, they deserve a place in the biscuit tin.”

So there you have it, fig rolls are biscuits.

The Great British Bake Off is on Channel 4, Tuesdays at 8pm