Bakeries in Salford

The baking story of Salford

Salford sits just across the River Irwell from Manchester, but it has its own fiercely independent identity — and its own famous bake. Eccles, now part of the City of Salford, gave its name to the Eccles cake: a round of flaky, buttery pastry packed with currants, slashed on top and sprinkled with sugar. Locals sometimes call them 'squashed fly cakes'. Salford's working-class history, recorded in the paintings of L.S. Lowry and in its docks, mills and terraces, was built on cheap, filling food — barm cakes, meat pies, and hotpot left to cook slowly in the oven. Today Salford Quays has brought new cafés, while older districts keep their traditional bakers, and Broughton's Jewish bakeries sell challah and pastries.

Local bakes to look out for

• Eccles cake – Flaky pastry filled with buttery currants, finished with a sugar crust.
• Barm cake – A soft, flat bread roll, the everyday sandwich bread of the North West.
• Lancashire hotpot – Lamb and onions under a crust of sliced potatoes, baked slowly in the oven.

Bakery hunter's tip: Visit Eccles town centre for the cake that bears its name, and look for Jewish bakeries around Broughton for challah and pastries.

Did you know? Lancashire hotpot was traditionally left to cook slowly in the oven all day, ready for workers returning from the mills.