Eccles Cake appears as a signature dish in 2 United Kingdom cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Eccles cake · London
A small flaky-pastry round filled with currants, butter and brown sugar, topped with crystallised sugar. A classic British bake found at St John in Clerkenwell and bakery counters across London.
The Eccles cake is named for the town of Eccles in Greater Manchester, where James Birch began selling them commercially in 1793. London's enduring claim to the form comes from St John on St John Street (1994), where Fergus Henderson serves Eccles cake with Lancashire cheese as a counter-bakery and dessert plate. The St John recipe (flaky pastry, butter-soaked currants, demerara) is widely copied across modern British kitchens. Other London bakeries selling the orthodox form: Bea's of Bloomsbury, Lyle's, Toad Bakery.
Where to eat in London:
- St John
- Quality Chop House
- Toad Bakery
Eccles cake · Manchester
Lancashire flaky-pastry pucks filled with currants, butter and warm spices. Born in Eccles, Salford in the late 1700s and named for the town, sold commercially since 1793.
James Birch is credited as the first to sell Eccles cakes commercially, at the corner of Vicarage Road and St Mary's Road in Eccles town centre in 1793. The pastries became a tea-time staple across Lancashire and survived the industrial expansion of nineteenth-century Salford. St John in London still pairs the Eccles cake with Lancashire cheese; Manchester pub dessert menus serve it with cream.
Where to eat in Manchester:
- Mr Thomas's Chop House
- Eccles Market