An Eccles cake is a small, round pie, similar to a turnover, filled with currants and made from flaky pastry with butter, sometimes topped with brown sugar.

[citation needed] It is not known who invented the recipe,[1] but James Birch is credited with being the first person to sell Eccles cakes commercially; he sold the cakes from his shop, at the corner of Vicarage Road and St Mary's Road, now Church Street, in the town centre, in 1793.

[2] John Ayto states that Elizabeth Raffald was possibly the person who invented the Eccles Cake.

[3] The word cake is used in the older general sense of a "portion of bread containing additional ingredients" rather than the narrower meaning of sweet, leavened baked good.

Australian company Arnotts baked a "Spicy Fruit Roll" loosely based on the Eccles cake.