An Eccles cake is a small, round cake filled with currants and made with puff pastry, enriched with butter and topped with demerara sugar. Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles, in Salford. It is not known who invented the recipe, but James Birch is credited with being the first person to sell Eccles cakes on a commercial basis, from his shop at the corner of Vicarage Road and St Mary’s Road (now known as Church Street) in the town centre, in 1793.[1] Nicknames for the Eccles cake include Squashed Fly Cake and Fly Cake, owing to the appearance of the currants that it contains. A similar description is often applied to the Eccles cake's smaller, drier cousin, the Garibaldi biscuit. A similar sort of cake originates from the town of Chorley in Lancashire. The Chorley cake is flatter in appearance, is made with shortcrust pastry rather than puff pastry and is devoid of sugar topping.
Notes
- ^ Detailed History The history behind (and recipe for) Eccles Cakes (HTTP). Salford City Council. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
