Eccles cake


An Eccles cake is a small, round cake filled with currants and made with flaky pastry, enriched with butter.

Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles, in Salford. It's 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 Eccles, in 1793.[1]

Other names for the Eccles cake include Squashed Fly Cake and Fly Cake, due 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 a flatter version and slightly less sweet than the Eccles cake, made with shortcrust pastry instead of flaky.

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