Eccles Cakes

piquant, Sep 24, 7:53am
Today, I was mortified to find the one and only maker of superbly yummy Eccles Cakes in NZ (that I have found, anyway!) has stopped making them!!! The fact that they have been an hour and a half's drive away from where I live made them all the more delectable on the few occasions I did have them. Rats! I says to the lady baker! Well, if you're not making them any more maybe you'd like to let me in on the recipe then...she smile wryly ...and here I am thinking I've got **** show of getting that when one of the other ladies said - well, it is only the Edmonds Cook Book one. Great, I thought, having been given one for Christmas a few years back, only to find, when I got home and scoured it, that it wasn't there. Rats! again. I googled it this time and came across the same question asked by someone in 2004!!!!! Apparently.....it was only ever in one edition (an early one) so I am on here pleading for all you wonderful Edmonds afficionados to please see if you have it. I am particularly keen that it be the Edmonds one as I have tried them and they are very true to how I remember them. Many, many thank you's to those of you who look!

cookessentials, Sep 24, 8:29am
I am sure they make them at 10 O'clock cookie co.

cookessentials, Sep 24, 8:37am
500g puff pastry
25g butter, melted
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg
55g candied peel
110g sugar
225g currants

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and butter and cook over a medium heat until melted.
Off the heat, add currants, candied peel and nutmeg.
On a lightly-floured surface, roll the pastry thinly and cut into rounds of about 5cm thickness and 10cm diameter.
Place a small spoonful of filling onto center of each pastry circle.
Dampen the edges of the pastry with a little cold water and draw the edges together over the fruit and pinch to seal.
Turn over the patty over, then press gently with a rolling pin to flatten the cakes. Snip a V in the top with scissors. Place on a greased baking tray.
Brush with water and sprinkle with a little extra sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until lightly browned round the edges.
Place on a wire rack and allow to cool.

These are the English recipe - not Edmonds.

tjma, Sep 24, 8:42am
Just checked my book 1993 and it is not in there either, must be in a earlier book. Will check with my mum her book is quite old.

farmboy16, Sep 24, 8:43am
2oz butter4oz brown sugar8oz mixed cake fruit
1 tspn cinnamon1/2 tspn nutmeg8oz short or flaky pastry
Cream butter and sugar, stir in remaining ingredients.
Roll out pastry thinly and cut into rounds, about size of a saucer. Place a dessertspoon of fruit mix in centre, dampen edges and pinch edges together to form a ball. Turn them over and flatten till fruit shows through. Make three cuts on top, sprinkle with sugar and

farmboy16, Sep 24, 8:45am
bake at 375F for 35mins or until brown

juliewn, Sep 24, 8:48am
Hi Piquant.. and welcome to 'Recipes' :-)

This is from one of the earlier Edmonds books in my collection - the 7th Edition:

2oz butter or dripping
4ozs brown sugar
2oz candied peel
8oz currants
1 tsp cinnamon
A little grated nutmeg
1/2lb flaky pastry

Cream butter and sugar, stir in the other ingredients.
Roll pastry out thinly and cut into rounds 4 inches in diameter.
Put a little of the mixture on the centre of each, wet the edges and pinch them together to form a ball.
Turn over and flatten till the currants show through.
Mark the tops, sprinkle with sugar and bake in hot oven - 400°F (about 200°C)

Enjoy..

I've also placed a spoonful of mixture on one half of the pastry circle, folded the other half over, press the edges together, then gently roll till the currants show through.

I think I've seen them in the bakery/cafe that's on the right as you go into Carterton from Masterton.. by a collectibles shop.. if they don't have them there, I recommend trying anything else there that takes your fancy - it's one of our favourite cafes..

doman1, Sep 24, 8:49am
from Edmonds illustrated cookbook

50 g butter, softened,1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugara little grated nutmeg
1/4 cup candied peel400g packet flaky pastry
1 1/2 cups curramtsextra sugar

Cream butter and suagr, stir in peel, currants, cinnamon and nutmeg. Roll pastry out to 2 mm thickness and cut into rounds 10cms in diamter. Put 1 tablespoon of the fruit mixture on centre of each, wet the edges and pinch together so to form aball. Turn over and flatten until thecurrants show through. brush top with water. cut two slashes in each top, sprinkle with sugarand bake 220C for 15 mins or until golden

piquant, Sep 24, 9:53am
Thank you all very much. It is interesting to hear that it was in one of the illustrated books - that's what mine was/is! I am sure there are lots of places that make them - I shouldn't frequent cake shops - far too tempting (Like those to die for chocolate danish twists that NW do in Masterton!!!! - I have to will myself past that place at coffee time) but every now and then an Eccles cake would not go amiss. It's very kind of you to indulge my obsession to get the Edmonds version - having downloaded Delia Smith's version and a couple of others too - not withstanding that I probably have others in the mountain of cookbooks that fill bookcases here. I'll let you know the results!!

nauru, Sep 24, 11:10am
Cookessentials recipe is the same recipe I use and the end product is like the eccles cakes I used to buy in the UK. Don't substitute the butter for anything else or they won't taste the same.Somtimes I use flakey pastry instead of puff and they are just as good.

gardie, Sep 24, 5:35pm
A few years back, Chelsea sugar had a competition for favourite recipes.The winners went into a recipe book called Sugar and Spice and it has a wonderful recipe for Eccles Cakes.Your local library should have a copy (Jo Seagar compiled the recipes by memory).

pickles7, Sep 24, 8:10pm
They were a great seller, all our cake rubbish went into them. the days when you trimmed the edges. I am noticing a lot of bakeries don't do that any more. Hence no, Eccles Cakes. Eccles and fruit squares / fly cemeteries, both popular, had the same filling.

"Fly cemetery" fruit mix.
Dry fruit,
cake crumbs or bread crumbs
[ this is where your not so popular baking can go, freeze until you have enough.]
Add a few spices, stewed apples to moisten,
a 1/2 cup of sugar ,[taste
2-3 eggs,
needs to be sticky. Spread onto a sheet of raw pastry,wet edges.
Put another sheet of pastry on top, prick well with a fork,
milk down sprinkle with caster sugar and bake in a hot oven.

No quantities given, as it really is a case of using your own cooking skills.... taste before adding the eggs....dose it look fruity enough? etc.
Eccles is a round piece of pastry, a good Tablespoon of fruit in the middle wet the edges fold up the pastry to enclose the fruit , turn over flatten a bit and slash the top three times. milk and sugar the tops before cooking.
I still put my bits and pieces in the freezer and use them up in fruit mince like, tarts. For those I use the sweet paste. recipe #20 in with the rest of my recipe's..... pickles7....

piquant, Sep 25, 1:59am
You're not going to believe this... I'm looking after a friend's cats at the moment and I went to feed them this morning and in the cupboard with the cat food was.....da. dad.da.dah!!!An Edmonds Cookbook! Version 5 from way back when (1956 I think, or maybe 1959) And what do you guess was in it. Yep--Eccles cakes. So now I have not only the Edmonds Illustrated version but the real old one too. It probably is much the same except the grams were oz's and the temp degrees F not C.

pickles7, Apr 15, 6:03pm
x1
noooooooooo!!!, you went snoooooping. lol. She keeps her books in a draw under a spare bed, in the attic. I hope you were careful climbing up the ladder.