Dr Mobeus
Parkin
Parkin belongs to the north of England the way haggis belongs to Scotland. It is the dark, sticky, deeply gingery oat cake that gets baked in October and eaten around Bonfire Night, and in Yorkshire a November 5 without it is not really November 5.
It is a genuinely frugal cake, built from the cheapest shelf items there are: oats, flour, brown sugar, golden syrup and treacle. A whole tin of 12 squares costs about £1.50, or roughly 13p a square, which is less than half the price of a single slice of cake in most coffee shops.
The strange and wonderful thing about parkin is that it improves with age. Fresh from the oven it is good, but wrapped and left for a few days it turns denser, stickier and more treacly, which is why northern households used to bake it weeks ahead. Make it early, hide it, and let time do the work. This is a cake that rewards planning, not talent.
Parkin
Ingredients
Method
- Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan.
- Melt the butter, golden syrup and treacle together in a pan over a low heat, stirring until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly.
- Mix the flour, oatmeal, sugar, ginger and salt in a bowl. Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the milk, it will fizz a little.
- Pour the melted syrup mixture and the milk into the dry ingredients and beat well with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth, loose batter that drops lazily off the spoon.
- Tip into the tin and bake for 50-55 minutes until firm to the touch and springy in the centre. A skewer should come out with a few sticky crumbs rather than wet batter.
- Cool completely in the tin, then wrap the whole thing in baking paper and foil. Parkin is best after 3-5 days resting and will keep up to 2 weeks, getting stickier and darker as it sits.
Tips and Variations
The resting stage is not optional, parkin eaten on day one is a different and lesser thing, so bake it a few days before you want it. Medium oatmeal is the traditional ingredient and gives a better texture, but porridge oats blitzed a few seconds in a blender work well. Wrap it airtight in baking paper then foil, never plastic wrap alone. A square with a slice of sharp cheese is a proper northern pairing worth trying.
