Eccles cakes are pastries with a sugar crust from the North of England that are filled with a sweet and sour combination. The best way to eat them is hot out of the oven.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 cakes |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup dried currants
- ¾ cup demerara sugar
- 2 tablespoons chopped candied mixed fruit peel
- ¾ teaspoon mixed spice
- ½ (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 1 large egg white, beaten
- ¼ cup white sugar for decoration
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Sprinkle a baking sheet with water.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add currants, demerara sugar, fruit peel, and mixed spice. Stir until sugar is dissolved and fruit is well coated, then remove from the heat.
- Roll pastry on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Using a saucer as a guide, cut out eight 5-inch circles. Divide fruit mixture evenly among the circles. Moisten the pastry edges with water, pull over filling toward the center, and pinch to seal. Invert filled cakes on the floured surface and gently to make a wider, flatter circle, being careful not to break the dough.
- Brush each cake with egg white, then sprinkle generously with white sugar. Make three parallel cuts across the top of each cake, then transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 268 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 32 g |
| Cholesterol | 8 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 104 mg |
| Sugars | 14 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was so good. I couldn’t find currents, so I used dried blueberries from Trader Joe’s instead. But that was the only change I will definitely make things again.
I have been using this Eccles cake recipe for ages, successfully, but the last two times they haven’t worked as well. I’m sure the recipe used to be in grams as I don’t recall having to convert before. As another reviewer says, way too much sugar. 3/4 cup Demerara converts to 150g. I found another recipe which had twice the measurement of currants to sugar. I am going to do that but use the rest of this recipe/method as I like it. Previously I would have said 5 stars, making some at the weekend so let’s see!
Excellent recipe giving my favourite cakes – I’ve made five lots so far
Seriously, 150gm demerara sugar to 200gm dried fruit. I ended up with a solid mess, so made brittle, but subsequently binned. Tried again with about 50gm of light muscovado, heaped teaspoon of butter, perfect, but suprised you managed to achieve eight, especially 1/4″ thick, maybe American inches are smaller.
I soaked the currents in sherry, turned out great
Add lemon zest
Excellent recipe and fairly easy to make, I didn’t have any candied fruit peel so I used the zest of a lemon and orange. Also I added a bit of dried cranberries. Delicious.
First time I made these and they turned out great so easy to make and the taste is very nice
Very yummy! Used allspice for spice mix, and instead of rolling after filling pressed firmly by hand. Place sealed-edges side down. Those baked sealed-edges side up popped open! 🙂
Family loved this, rated really yummy.
Turned out perfect. Taste of home. Definitely a keeper!
They were way too sweet and not enough spice. Sorry, they just did not work out for us.
Same recipe i use but i make more like 40 at a time. If the sugar doesn’t melt with the butter don’t worry, it will melt when you cook them. Make sure to seal the pastry well on the underside or the sugar caramel will run out. Also a good idea to bake on parchment or a silpat mat.
Excellent taste and texture! Brought back memories of the local bakery I used to get these at when I was a child
This was a great recipe, love eccles cakes, to small though, hoped could have made bigger ones!!!
These turned out delicious, but I really need some help as I have no idea where I went wrong. First of all I couldn’t get the demerara sugar to melt. I added extra butter to see if that was the problem, but no, still no melting. I added the rest of the ingredients as instructed and decided to continue on with unmelted sugar. The amount of filling was almost three times more than what I needed, how’d that happen? I’m positive I measured everything correctly. I ended up throwing away more than half the filling! I will try them again next weekend to see if it turns out any differently, but I’m wondering if anyone else had any similar problems? Doesn’t sound like it.
I made these as a gift for some British friends and they raved about them. Saved a couple for me and my husband and they were delicious.
Fabulous!!! Eccles cakes are a huge hit in my house – maybe it’s because I live in the North of England (Yorkshire). Anyway, I didn’t have any mixed spice & guess what….they were truly delicious. I doubled up on ingredients as I we love them & today I have just two left! My mother & brother took some home with them & later that night I had calls from both asking when I’d be making them again! Try them – you’ll love them 🙂
Fab recipe,turn out exactly as they should. For those who haven’t made them before, when you turn them over to roll them, only give a few little gentle rolls, they should not be too big, and don’t worry if some of the currants show through a little, makes them more authentic!
This is a super recipe! Our family is from the North of England and my father used to love these when he was younger. Since 1947 when he came to Canada he has only had them rarely so he was thrilled when I made some and took them to him yesterday. Both he and my Mum say that they are the best they have ever tasted. This was the second time I have used the recipe and I was better at them this time. I have made a couple of minor adjustments – the puff pastry I buy comes in two rolled squares. I find that by just cutting each into four squares I can still form them into rounds after filling them and turning them over. This saves having to cut them into circles. I also didn’t like to throw out the egg yolk so I add that to the filling. It didn’t seem to alter the taste or the result. Thanks again for a great recipe I know I am going to use again and again.
Eccles Cakes are one of my favorite sweets to buy when I’m in England and these certainly satisfy me here! Using the puff pastry makes this an easy recipe.