Spiced Rum 'Eccles' Cakes

To the good people of Eccles, I apologise for messing with the recipe for the very fine creation that is the Eccles cake but I have no cinnamon or orange juice/zest so needs must.

To the uninitiated an Eccles cake is a classic bake from the town of Eccles and have been made and sold since at least 1793. It is a simple product of currants and spices wrapped in a flaky pastry casing. I had quite fancied making them since I spied them being sold in the little Marble Brewery pub on Thomas Street in Manchester as part of their bar snack range.

Having a collection of nearly every spice apart from cinnamon and the lack of a orange in the house meant I had to play around and decided to substitute the spices and liquid with a couple of tablespoons of Spiced Rum to give a nice spicy alcoholic kick.

I also found, thanks to Her Royal Highness (Delia), a recipe for a quick flaky pastry which cuts out all the rolling and folding to make normal flaky pastry which you can find right here on her website.

I am entering these for Calender Cakes, a blogger challenge run by Rachel at Dollybakes and Laura at Laura Loves Cakes of which the theme for this month is The Great Village Show a celebration of all things Great British.

Spiced Rum 'Eccles' Cakes
Ingredients
one batch of quick flaky pastry or you could use 500g puff pastry if you want.
75g butter
150g dark brown soft sugar
150g currants
50g mixed peel
3tbsp Spiced Rum

Method
Gently melt the butter in a saucepan. once melted stir in the other ingredients until well combined and leave to cool.
Roll out the pastry until about the thickness of a pound coin.
Cut out circles with your largest cutter, at least 3 inches wide.
Add about half to a full teaspoon of mix to each circle, leaving a gap around the edge, don't over fill.
Wet the edges of the circle with a bit of water and fold up the edges and seal.
Gently roll into a ball with your hands.
Place on a flat surface, seam side down and gently, with a rolling pin, flatten to about 1/2cm-1cm thick.
Repeat with all remaining pastry circles.
Brush each cake with milk and sprinkle with caster sugar
Bake in a preheated oven at 220C (fan) until golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack then serve with a brew.

Enjoy