Eccles cakes take their name from Eccles, a town in Greater Manchester, England.
An Eccles cake is a small, round pastry filled with currants, butter, and sugar. The filling is enclosed in flaky pastry, which is often marked with several cuts on top and sprinkled with sugar before baking. It is usually eaten as a snack or served with tea.
The cakes became commercially associated with Eccles after James Birch began selling them there in 1793. The town was historically in Lancashire and is now part of Greater Manchester, a change that can create confusion when older descriptions call the cakes Lancashire specialties.
Eccles cakes are sometimes mistaken for Chorley cakes, another Lancashire pastry. Chorley cakes are generally flatter and use a different pastry style, while Eccles cakes are characteristically round and flaky. Neither should be confused with mince pies, whose filling and seasonal tradition differ.