Eccles Cake — flaky pastry packed with buttery currants

i. Origin & history

Eccles is a town in Lancashire, now part of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, and the cakes have carried its name since at least the late eighteenth century. The person usually credited with making them famous is James Birch, a shopkeeper said to have sold them from his premises in the centre of Eccles from the 1790s; his business and its successors traded on the name for generations, and Eccles cakes were being shipped across Britain and abroad by the nineteenth century.

The cakes are older in spirit than the shop, though. Eccles was known for its annual wakes, the parish festival, and spiced currant pastries were part of the food of the occasion. A story repeated in almost every account says that the Puritans of the 1650s banned the wakes and the rich cakes eaten at them as sinful indulgence. It is plausible — the Commonwealth did suppress many festivals — but there is no clear evidence that Eccles cakes as such were ever named in a law, and it is best treated as local legend.

The word 'cake' is a survival of older English usage, in which small enriched pastries and breads were routinely called cakes. The modern nicknames are more descriptive: 'squashed fly cake' or 'dead fly pie', for the dark currants visible through the thin pastry. In Lancashire the cake is traditionally eaten with a slice of crumbly Lancashire cheese, a pairing that has made a quiet comeback in British restaurants.

Eccles cakes have two well-known neighbours. Chorley cakes, from a town twenty miles north, use shortcrust rather than flaky pastry, are flatter and usually unglazed. Banbury cakes, from Oxfordshire, are oval, more heavily spiced and often contain candied peel and rum. Further afield, Scottish 'fly cemetery' and Dublin's gur cake are flat slices of pastry and dried fruit in the same spirit.

ii. Why the pastry is pressed until the currants show

The defining move in making an Eccles cake is flattening it after it has been filled. A ball of filling is wrapped in a round of pastry, turned seam-side down, then rolled or pressed out until the dark currants show through. This does two things. It spreads the filling into a thin, even disc so every bite has both fruit and pastry, and it thins the top pastry so it shatters rather than puffs.

The filling has to be cool and firm. Currants are tossed in melted butter and sugar, and as the mixture cools the butter sets and binds it into a paste that can be spooned and wrapped without leaking. In the oven the butter melts again and the sugar dissolves into it, making a glossy, jammy filling. Warm filling will melt the butter in the pastry and wreck the layers before they reach the oven.

Flaky pastry rises because it is made of separate sheets of dough and fat. In a hot oven, around 220 °C, the water in the dough and butter turns to steam and pushes the layers apart before the fat melts out. That is why the cakes must go into a fully preheated oven straight from the fridge. The three slashes on top let steam escape so the cake does not balloon and split at the seam.

The glaze — egg white brushed on, then a thick scattering of granulated or demerara sugar — bakes into a brittle, crackly top that is the first thing you taste. Egg white rather than whole egg gives a lighter, crunchier finish.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 12 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 250 g plain flour (pastry)
• 200 g cold unsalted butter, diced (pastry)
• ½ tsp salt (pastry)
• 125 ml ice-cold water (pastry)
• 250 g currants
• 50 g unsalted butter, melted (filling)
• 75 g light muscovado or soft brown sugar
• 25 g chopped candied peel (optional)
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• 1 lemon, finely grated zest
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 3 tbsp granulated or demerara sugar, for the top

Currants are the only correct fruit — small, dark, intense and slightly tart; raisins or sultanas make a sweeter, juicier filling that reads more like a mince pie. The rough puff pastry here takes 30 minutes of hands-on work and gives a crisper, more buttery result than most bought pastry, but a 500 g block of all-butter puff pastry is a perfectly respectable shortcut. Traditional bakers often used part lard in the pastry; substituting a quarter of the butter with lard gives extra flakiness. Spicing should be gentle: nutmeg and allspice, perhaps a little cinnamon. Brandy or rum in the filling is a modern addition, not a traditional one.

iv. Method

1. Make the rough puff: mix the flour and salt, toss in the cold diced butter and squash the cubes lightly so they stay in visible pieces. Add the cold water and bring together into a shaggy dough. Wrap and chill for 20 minutes.
2. On a floured surface, roll the dough into a long rectangle about 1 cm thick, fold the top third down and the bottom third up like a letter, and turn 90°. Repeat the roll and fold 3 more times, chilling for 15 minutes after the second fold. Chill for 30 minutes before using.
3. Make the filling: stir the currants, peel, sugar, spices and lemon zest into the melted butter. Leave to cool, then chill for 15 minutes until firm enough to scoop.
4. Heat the oven to 220 °C (200 °C fan, 425 °F) and line two baking trays. Roll the pastry 3 mm thick and cut out twelve 10–11 cm rounds, re-rolling trimmings once.
5. Put a heaped tablespoon of filling in the centre of each round. Brush the edge with water, gather the pastry up over the filling and pinch tightly closed. Turn seam-side down.
6. Press or gently roll each one flat to about 1.5 cm thick and 8 cm across, until the currants just begin to show through. Place on the trays and chill for 15 minutes.
7. Cut three parallel slashes in the top of each. Brush with egg white and sprinkle thickly with sugar.
8. Bake for 15–20 minutes, until puffed, deep golden and crackly on top, with a little filling bubbling at the slashes. Cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes — the filling is very hot.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Chill the filling until firm. Warm, loose filling melts the pastry butter and leaks during shaping. It should hold together in a spoonful.
• Seal well and bake seam-side down. A poorly pinched seam opens in the oven and the filling runs out and burns on the tray.
• Do not skip the slashes. Without vents the steam forces its way out at the seam, splitting the cake open.
• Bake hot and well. Pale Eccles cakes have soggy, doughy pastry. They should be deep golden, with the sugar glaze caramelised at the edges.
• Use currants, not raisins. Raisins make a larger, wetter and sweeter filling; currants are what make an Eccles cake taste like one.
• Keep the dough cold throughout. If the butter starts to smear during the folds, put the pastry back in the fridge. Visible streaks of butter are what make it flaky.

vi. Variations

Chorley cakes use a plain shortcrust and are unglazed, rolled thinner, and often eaten buttered. Banbury cakes are oval and include peel and more spice. Some modern bakeries add a spoon of rum or brandy, a little orange zest, or mixed spice. An Eccles cake in hot water crust or with chopped apple is occasionally seen but strays from tradition.

For other British baking built on flaky pastry and fruit, see the apple turnover, and for currants in pudding form, spotted dick. Northern tea-time baking pairs well with Yorkshire parkin and treacle tart. The French palmiers share the sugar-crusted puff pastry.

vii. Serving & storage

Eccles cakes are eaten warm or at room temperature, with a cup of tea, and in Lancashire classically with a wedge of crumbly Lancashire cheese, whose sharp, lactic flavour cuts the sweetness of the currants. A spoon of clotted cream or custard is a more indulgent option.

They keep for 3 days in an airtight tin; refresh them in a 180 °C oven for 5 minutes to re-crisp the pastry. Unbaked, shaped cakes freeze very well for up to 3 months: open-freeze on a tray, then bag. Bake from frozen, glazing just before they go in and adding 5 minutes to the time. Baked cakes also freeze for a month.

ix. More from British & Irish

• Bakewell Tart — almond and jam tart
• Parkin — Yorkshire oat gingerbread
• Treacle Tart — golden syrup tart
• Spotted Dick — steamed currant pudding
• Apple Turnover — flaky apple pastry
• Palmiers — sugared puff pastry