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 Eccles cake in Manchester

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Make it at home

Serves 121 hr 30 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 500g rough puff pastry
  • 250g currants
  • 50g brown sugar
  • 50g butter, melted
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Demerara sugar for sprinkling

Method

  1. Mix the currants, brown sugar, melted butter, mixed spice and lemon zest in a bowl.
  2. Roll the pastry to 3mm thick and cut into 12cm circles.
  3. Place a tablespoon of the currant filling in the centre of each circle. Gather the pastry up around the filling, pinch to seal, then flip seam-down.
  4. Roll lightly to flatten into discs. Slash the top three times, brush with egg, sprinkle with demerara, and bake at 200C for 15-18 minutes until golden.

Editor tip. Don't overfill the cakes; the filling expands and bursts the pastry. A tablespoon is the right measure.

Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy.