Question: what is the difference between eccles cakes and mince pies?
Answer: The best way to think about the Eccles cake is to consider it as a sort of flattened, drier version of a mince pie, its puff pastry and raisins occupying the space between the mince pie and the Garibaldi biscuit in the baker's pantheon. ... Like mince pies, Eccles cakes were banned by Cromwell's puritans.