How to make the perfect Eccles cakes

This traditional northern treat is crisp and filled with dried fruit – but which fruit? And should they be nestled in flaky or puff pastry? Before the whoopee pie and the red velvet, before even the Victoria sandwich, there was the Eccles cake, and its less famous friends from Banbury and Chorley – a “fruit-filled pastry, 60-80mm diameter, 20mm deep”, according to Laura Mason and Catherine Brown’s invaluable guide, The Taste of Britain. Law’s Grocer’s Ma