Yorkshire Parkin – A spicy cake with oats.

I have made Yorkshire Parkin before, and it is on my blog.  But on that occasion I was not doing videos.  Recently I had a request, on Youtube, to make Yorkshire Parkin so I thought I would make it again.

Parkin is a big tradition in Northern England, particularly Yorkshire, and is usually eaten in the autumn, around Guy Fawkes(Bonfire) Night which is 5th November.  Being spicy, with ginger, nutmeg and mixed spice it is ideal for that time of year.  But I think it is also good at any time, either as a cake or as a dessert with custard or vanilla sauce.  In fact I think it is is a good alternative to sticky toffee pudding.

There are different versions of the cake, with different proportions of oats to flour etc.  For mine I used a recipe I found on About Food, which now seems to be The Spruce and decided to follow that again for this version.

I, of course, could not resist cutting a piece of my effort, even though it is best left for about 3 days in an airtight container.  It can also be left of up to a week before eating.  I can report that the taste is simply phenomenal and is only going to get better as the texture change and the rich flavours develop during the next few days.

With ginger, nutmeg, mixed spice, molasses, golden syrup and dark brown muscovado sugar you can just imagine the wonderful aroma that fills the room as it bakes.  

I made a very simple vanilla sauce to go with mine.

• 8 oz/220g soft butter
• 4 oz/110g soft, dark brown sugar
• 2oz / 55g black treacle/molasses
• 7oz / 200g golden syrup/ corn syrup
• 5oz/ 120g medium oatmeal
• 7 oz/ 200g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 275°F/140°C/gas 1 Note:(I used 120C Fan instead)
2. Grease an 8″ x 8″/ 20cm x 20cm square cake tin and line base with parchment paper.
3. In a large heavy-based saucepan melt together the butter, sugar, treacle, golden syrup over a gentle heat. Do not allow the mixture to boil, you simply need to melt these together.
4. In a large, spacious, baking bowl stir together all the dry ingredients. 
5. Gradually add the melted butter mixture stirring to coat all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
6. Gradually, beat in the eggs a few tablespoons at a time. 
7. Finally add the milk and again stir well.
8. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook for 1½ hours until firm and set and a dark golden brown.
9. Remove the parkin from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
10. Run a knife around the edges of the cake to ensure that it is freed and will be easy to turn out.
11.  Once cool store the Parkin in an airtight tin for a minimum of 3 days if you can resist eating it, you can even leave it up to a week before eating and the flavors really develop and the mixture softens even further and become moist and sticky.
12. The Parkin will keep up to two weeks in an airtight container.