Baking is truly one of the best ways I know of making friends and influencing people – it is not only men who are seduced by their stomachs, but in fact almost everyone you and I know loves a home made cake and it doesn’t have to be fancy or time consuming.
Eccles cakes are my newest discovery in the ‘fast and fantastic’ cake department (the other departments are ‘quick and easy’ and ‘cheap or free’). I will make a few exceptions to this rule, but not on a regular basis – life is full and time is short!
Eccles cakes are quintessentially English and my northern friends tell me I am too much of a southerner to be making them properly, but I haven’t heard any complaints! This recipe came originally from a Heston Blumenthal recipe from the Sunday Times, but has been much fiddled about with.
You will need:
500g puff pastry
150g caster sugar
100g butter
200g currants
a pinch or two of ground mixed spice
one egg, beaten with a dsp water
granulated sugar for sprinkling
In a small pan bring the butter and caster sugar to the boil, turn the heat off, stir in the currants and spice and allow the mixture to cool slightly.
Roll out the pastry until it is about 3mm thick and cut large (10cm diameter) circles and brush with the egg wash.
Put a tsp of the currant mixture into the centre of each circle and fold up into a parcel by pinching the edges together to seal them.
Turn over the cake and squash down a little, slash the tops 3 times with a sharp knife.
Keep going until you run out of pastry and or filling – you should get about 18 out of the ingredients.
Brush the tops with more egg wash and sprinkle with a little granulated sugar.
Place on baking paper on a baking sheet and bake at 200c/ 400f/ gas 6 for about 15-20 minutes until all puffed up and golden coloured.
Try to resist the temptation to eat straight from the oven, because you will get a burnt tongue – if that sounds like the voice of impatient experience, then there is a reason for that!!!!!
love lucy x
