Lovely Eccles Cakes!

These funny little cakes aren’t much to look at but what they lack in aesthetics, they more than make up for in substance and taste!

It is believed that Eccles cakes were first sold by James Birch in 1793, from his shop in Eccles town centre, Lancashire. Nowadays it’s classified as a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester! The really good news is that because Eccles cakes don’t have Protected Geographical Status (PGS), they can be made anywhere in the world and still be called Eccles Cakes!

There are a couple of secrets to creating the perfect Eccles Cake. The first is the pastry. Ideally, it should be flaky pastry but, if you can’t get hold of it or maybe you haven’t had time to make it and you just know that the only thing you need to do right NOW is to make Eccles cakes, then shop bought puff pastry will do. Flaky pastry is somewhere between shortcrust pastry and puff pastry. You can find the recipe for Flaky Pastry here.

It has to be dried currants. Do not be tempted to use any other dried fruit such as raisins or sultanas. They are much, much too sweet and also, too squishy. Currants have a slight sourness to them and being so small, will mean that they will not turn to mush when cooked in the pastry cases. Although, when I looked up the ingredient list at Lancashire Eccles Cake, who have been making them in the same factory since 1930, I notice that they use 40% fruit (currants AND raisins). So, what do I know?!

I’ve had many conversations with my Dad about Eccles Cakes. He used to work in a bakery when he was younger and we talk about oven usage and the order of how things were produced, etc. It’s much more interesting than it sounds but I guess you really had to be there! Anyway, two things that I have learned – from my Dad and subsequent experience, is that virgin pastry is not the best to use. In the bakery, the scraps of other more prestigious pastry goods such as turnovers, mille fuellies, etc would be carefully put together and used to make these little cakes. The idea is that you would have a crisp pastry that had lovely flake to it without wasting any premium ingredients and at the same time, minimising wastage. Sounds like a good plan to me.

The other thing I learnt (I can’t believe I’m going to share this) was the secret ingredient that will greatly improve the inner texture of the Eccles cake. Leftover cake! There, I’ve said it. My secret is out. You will not find this revelation in any recipe (I’ve looked). Obviously, if you don’t have any leftover cake, you could use stale breadcrumbs or, just miss it out. In my house, leftover cake is a rare thing. If the cake, at it’s best hasn’t been eaten, then it usually ends up as a pudding – good old cake and custard! If I know that I want to make these lovely little cakes, I usually gather all the other ingredients ready for when I’m baking cupcakes or Victoria sponge and then liberate a bit of cake for these. If you do decide to add in the extra ingredient, you will notice the texture isn’t so claggy and it gives a more enjoyable eating experience – in my opinion, of course! I hope you enjoy my take on this humble little cake. It works for me and that is one of the great things about baking, it’s a journey and it’s something that you can truly make your own!