Sunday 9 August 2015

Vegan Eccles Cakes


A visit from my family, most of whom live overseas, had us making excursions to various Cornish sights and towns over the last couple of weeks.  So I took to browsing through the very helpful 'Vegan Cornwall - A Guide to Where to Eat Vegan in Cornwall' recently for vegan alternatives to suit the whole gang wherever we ended up on our travels.  

We were already aware of and have written about the amazing Pengenna Pasties before. However until I'd read the Vegan Cornwall Guide I was unaware that they also made several other sweet vegan treats including Eccles cakes, apple turnovers, flapjacks, and scones.  So when my family decided a pasty was in order as we sat on the seafront at St Ives, I immediately directed them to Pengenna's to investigate.

A quick enquiry confirmed that indeed there were the aforementioned vegan choices on offer so after ordering the necessary pasty, an Eccles cake was added to the order.  For those unfamiliar with Eccles cakes, they are round flaky pastry 'cakes' filled with currants, candied peel, and nutmeg and topped off with sugar.  Invented in 1793 in the town of Eccles near Manchester they are indeed a British icon.  However, they are most definitely not health food but a sticky delight of naughtiness that is good for the vegan sweet soul every now and then.  I actually don't remember having one since I was a kid so this was a sweet blast from the past!

A few days later we found ourselves in Tintagel, another location of Pengenna's.  This time we took the opportunity to sample the apple turnovers.  I can confirm they are equally as good and equally as sweet.  Naughty but nice!

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