Yorkshire Parkin is an age old ginger cake recipe from Northern England. It’s moist, sticky and full of wholesome oats; perfect for Autumn and Bonfire night! It takes just 15 minutes to whip together (no machine required), then sit back as it slowly bakes in the oven and fills the house with a delightful, treacle aroma.
Line a 9x9 inch square tin with greaseproof paper.
Sieve 250g self raising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt, 2 teaspoon ground ginger and 250g fine oats/oatmeal then mix together with a wooden spoon.
Next place 120g muscovado sugar, 150g butter, 200g black treacle, and 100g golden syrup into a small sauce pan. Put the pan over a low heat and melt, whilst stirring well. Once fully melted, carefully pour into the flour mixture and stir together. The mixture will appear quite thick.
Whisk together the milk and egg. Then gradually add the milk mix to the cake mixture, stirring well between each addition. The mixture should now loosen up.
Once all the milk is added transfer the cake mix to the lined tin. Spread evenly across the base of the tin.
Place the tin in the centre of the oven and cook for an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
Once cooked remove from the oven. Leave the parkin to cool completely before removing from the tin. This will ensure your parkin stays in one piece. Then transfer to a wire rack before slicing into 16 square pieces.
Notes
Substitutions:
The flour in this recipe can be replaced with 250g (2 cups) all purpose flour + 1 level teaspoon of baking powder.
Fine oats or medium oatmeal can be swapped for rolled oats or fine porridge oats. Or blitz whole oats in a food processor before adding to the recipe.
Replace muscovado sugar with dark brown sugar (Note that dark brown sugar is finer, has less molasses and a milder taste).
If you can’t get hold of UK golden syrup, have a go making your own.
Black treacle can be replaced with dark molasses.
Freezing and reheating: Wrap individual pieces or the whole slab of Parkin in a double layer of cling film and freeze for up to 3 months. To defrost leave on the side for a couple of hours - this will take more or less time to defrost depend on the size. Alternatively microwave in 30 second bursts until defrosted and slightly warmed through.Sinking parkin: Not baking parkin for long enough can mean the gooey mixture inside will cause the cake to collapse/sink as it cools. However, leaving it for longer can make the parkin too dry. The best advice is to check with a skewer 10 minutes before the end baking. Then make a judgement based on how clean the skewer is.Storage: Once made the Parkin can be wrapped in cling film and stored in an air tight container for a good few weeks. The high amount of sugar in this recipe means that it keeps really well and actually improves with age.