90 Eccles Cake

Name: Eccles Cake
Ingredients: 5 g ground cinnamon; For the Rough Puff Pastry method; 75 g currants (best quality — The best are from Vostizza in Greece); 1 orange zested; Squeeze of lemon (only a teaspoon); 3 g nutmeg grated; Egg for egg wash; 300 g butter (chilled and cut into medium-sized cubes); Splash of iced water; 50 g chopped mixed peel; 75 g golden raisins; 450 g flour; 75 g butter; 1 tsp salt; 75 g soft light brown sugar

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Chefs' Knowledge

By Chandos Elletson

Published 2022

About

Eccles is a town in Lancashire that once had an annual fair. At the fair was served a special cake that was filled with currants. It was made with a short, sweet pastry and its filling was flavoured with currants and spices.

That’s about all that is known. Cakes in those days are not the same cakes known today. The Eccles would now be known as a pastry as the casing is made with puff pastry.

However, the real secret of the Eccles are the currants it contains. These have to b