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Beginning of the end for Eccles cakes?

16/10/2004

FOR more than 200 years, the Eccles Cake has been one of Britain's best-loved teatime delicacies.

But the traditional treat faces a flaky future after being barred by the country's biggest High Street bakers.

Greggs has removed the buttery currant cake from sale at its 1,200 outlets because it claims people today prefer their pastry to be Danish.

The firm has even stopped selling the cakes in its Eccles branch, on the same street where the first Eccles Cakes were sold by baker James Birch in 1796.

Cake connoisseurs are outraged and say the disappearance of the Lancashire speciality is another nail in the coffin for regional diversity in the British diet.

Top chef Robert Owen Brown, who includes Eccles Cakes on the dessert menu at his fashionable Manchester restaurant, The Bridge, said he was "disgusted".

"I can hardly believe this," he said. "Eccles Cakes are traditional, regional food and I think it is a big mistake to stop selling them, especially in Eccles.

"It's like going to Melton Mowbray and finding the butcher doesn't sell pork pies."

Leann Taylor, manager of rival bakers' Hampsons in Eccles, said: "We sell loads of Eccles Cakes, they are still very popular in our shop."

Ian Edmonds, of Ardwick-based Lancashire Eccles Cakes Ltd, said his firm makes 600,000 a week and sells them as far afield as the US, Germany and Spain.

"Our business is thriving," he said. "We have been making Eccles Cakes for generations and we've never been busier. I don't understand at all."

Mr Edmonds has contributed his family recipe, right, in case Greggs have a change of heart.

The first Eccles Cakes were sold by James Birch at his bakery on Church Street in Eccles. A blue plaque marks the location, which is now a furniture shop.

Greggs, which started as a family bakery in the north east before expanding into nearly every British town, said it had stopped selling them because customers no longer wanted them.

A spokesman said: "We were getting much more demand for other products, such as muffins and chocolate slices. Greggs would definitely consider re-introducing Eccles Cakes if demand rose again."

Cynthia Entwistle, from The Larder bakery on Church Street, said: "They are still very popular here, we had a lady in from Newcastle who bought a bag because they taste so much better when they're from Eccles."

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