Tom Parker Bowles

Eccles Cakes

Preparation info
  • Makes

    12–14

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in
top 1000Let's Eat
Let's Eat

By Tom Parker Bowles

Published 2013

  • About

The late Winnie Swarbrick was a magnificent lady and an incredible baker. Her ginger cakes, butter biscuits and chocolate cake, cooked in her small Goosnargh kitchen, are seared in my memory. And her Eccles cakes were the best in the world. She died last year, and is much missed.

Ingredients

For the Pastry

  • 225 g/8 oz plain flour, sifted, plus extra for rolling out pastry
  • pinch of salt

Method

To make the pastry, mix the flour and salt in a bowl, then rub a quarter of the butter into the flour. Add just enough water to form an elastic dough. Turn this out onto a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll it out into a rectangular strip about