Everyone has a student splurge. My flatmate will buy 14 Muller Corners a week. Another will splash his cash on posh cuts of meat. Me? It has become increasingly clear in my student life I indulge in many things I don’t need and can’t afford. Camper Coffee’s Berry Tea? Unnecessary. A Pret baguette? Overpriced. The £1 Mini Eggs they are stocking in Market Place? Practically frivolous. But McVitie’s Jamaican ginger cake has become something of a staple product in my diet.
It all started out as nostalgia. I remember being given ginger cake at various parts in my childhood; a slice of ginger cake on a rainy day was comforting. Picnics were filled with it. I would have happily eaten it as birthday cake. But notably, it was always a treat. Then I went into Tesco and saw that McVitie’s Jamaican ginger cake was on sale for 67p. I bought 4 packets of it and it provided me with breakfast, snacks, and, on one particularly dark evening, a 2am dinner. When the sale sign left the shelves, the purchases prevailed. And it’s only worsened since its appearance in Market Place – yet another excuse for them absorb my money.
But at the end of the day, sometime after that seminar that ends at 6pm, McVities Jamaican ginger cake is waiting in my kitchen as a reward for struggling through that long day.
