My father-in-law, a muslim, only recently discovered the somewhat unfortunate origin of gelling agents. I can't say the idea of them is particularly appealing, even for someone who likes bloody slabs of rare cow. Gelatin based sweets are disgusting, anyway.
The lack of the stuff in jaffa cakes might actually be the secret to their awesomeness.
Craig, if this becomes a series then I fear you might become a competent and less entertaining cook. Watching you trying to hand-whisk a whole brick of butter really restored my faith in my own terrible cooking skills.. which mostly involve loading a bread maker from a pre-mixed packet.