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Ahhh the Eccles cake. A legendary baked good in the north of England that has garnered fans worldwide. That means if you’re visiting Manchester then you must try one of these baked delights.
Why? Because Eccles is part of Greater Manchester and this bakery staple is an important part of the area’s history.
If you join us for one of our food tours in Manchester, we can make sure that you sample an Eccles cake from one of the city’s best bakeries. But before that, just what are Eccles cakes and why do they have such an important place in Mancunian hearts?
Despite its name, an Eccles cake isn’t really a cake – it’s actually a pastry. Think more like an apple turnover, but instead of apples as the filling, it has currants, raisins and citrus peel mixed with delightful spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.
Of course, these sweet treats should also be topped with sugar. The pastry itself is flaky (a bit like puff pastry but not), rather than crumbly (like short crust).
They’re about the size of a digestive biscuit and one of the reasons they’re much beloved is because they should be generously filled – you should have a good amount of filling with every bite, not just pastry.
Eccles cakes originate in Eccles, which is now part of Greater Manchester. The Eccles cake is believed to have been popularised by baker James Birch, who started producing and selling these sweet treats in his bakery in Eccles, an area on the edge of Salford in the 1800s.
There is some debate over whether a cookery writer from the 1700s – Elizabeth Raffald – could claim to be the Eccles cake’s creator, but either way it was Birch who made them famous and who gave them their iconic name.
In fact, there are also claims that Oliver Cromwell banned these baked goods as far back as the 1600s for being “too indulgent”. Of course, the people of Eccles and Lancashire as a whole were having none of it and continued to make and enjoy their elicit baked goods.
As more people tried these bakes, their popularity spread and by the 1920s, a business had developed to bake and ship these delightful treats all over the UK and beyond.
There’s even a company, called Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes (and run by the Edmonds family) that bakes thousands of Eccles cakes every year. This particular bakery is based in Ardwick, Manchester, so not in the location of the cakes’ namesake.
You’ll find fresh Eccles cakes on sale in pretty much any bakery you walk into in Manchester, which means there is plenty of choice. And we are happy to direct you to somewhere to sample these delicious treats on one of our food tours.
However, there is only one bakery in Eccles itself that makes Eccles cakes – the Albert Street Bakery. It’s a comparative newcomer having only opened in 2018, but it’s going strong. However, they don’t sell directly from their Eccles premises.
Instead, they supply local cafes as well as being at the Platt Fields Market Garden on a Saturday. But the fact remains they are the only producers of Eccles-made Eccles cakes.
Aside from their strong ties to Manchester, there is one more story about Eccles cakes that always gets a giggle. In 2013, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service issued a warning about Eccle cakes starting fires when microwaved.
The cakes are prone to exploding if they are heated in a microwave, so this is not advised. Others suggested that the sugar on top could caramelise, burn and catch fire while in a microwave, which could be another reason for the fires.
Whatever the reason, you’ll now see warnings on Eccles cakes you can buy in the supermarket advising against microwaving.
Another reason to warm them in the oven rather than the microwave is simply that they can become a little soggy (as can many other pastries) if you pop them in the microwave rather than heating them up in the oven.
So, there you have it, a whistle-stop tour of the history of Eccles cakes. Hopefully we’ve convinced you that they’re worth trying when you next visit Manchester.
While you can buy them in supermarkets, we don’t think there’s anything quite like a freshly baked Eccles cake and a brew to warm you up!
