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Eccles

Great Britain: Eccles Cake

Eccles cakes

The earliest evidence of what are now known as Eccles cakes is from 1769, when Elizabeth Raffald, housekeeper at the country house Arley Hall, wrote a best-selling recipe book which contained instructions for "sweet patties".

They were made from the gelatine extracted from a boiled calf’s foot, as well as apples, oranges, nutmeg, egg yolk, currants and brandy. The whole mixture was then enveloped in puff pastry and either fried or baked.

It was James Birch of Salford who was credited with being the first person to sell them commercially. He began selling them in 1793 from his shop on the corner of Vicarage Road and St Mary’s Road (now Church Street), Salford.

Eccles cakes are now well known throughout the world as a traditional English cake, though maybe not as well known as they were in past centuries. Then (as early as 1818) they were sold 'at all the markets and fairs around and are even exported to America and the West Indies'.

The recipe...

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