This sticky old fashioned Yorkshire Parkin recipe contains oatmeal. It keeps really well and improves with time. Therefore, it can be made a couple of days before it’s needed.
What is Yorkshire Parkin
A recipe for Old Fashioned Yorkshire Parkin should not be confused with a Ginger Cake or Ginger Bread recipe. It is often associated with Yorkshire and eaten around Halloween and Bonfire night (Wiki)
It’s a time of year when comfort baking is in full swing. True Yorkshire Parkin contains Oatmeal and any cake without it is simply a Ginger Cake/Bread and nothing more.
A good treacle Parkin recipe has to be moist, sticky and full of ginger and toffee flavours with a nutty texture coming from the medium oats, and deep toffee flavours created by the addition of dark black treacle.
How to make Yorkshire Parkin.
Making a Parkin cake, couldn’t be easier. Once you’ve switched on the oven, weighed out all the ingredients, greased and lined your baking tin, you are ready to start baking.
The mixture is a little runny, which is why it’s essential that you also line your loose bottomed cake tin with baking parchment. To help prevent any batter from oozing out.
Place the butter, black treacle, golden syrup, and brown sugar in a pan over low heat. Gently simmer until all the sugar and butter have melted. Take off the heat and leave to one side to cool a little.
Place all the dry ingredients consisting of Oatmeal, Flour, Baking Powder and Ginger, into a large heatproof bowl and gently mix together. Then pour the cooled sugar treacle mixture over the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
Add the milk and give it a good mix. Gradually add the eggs and mix until well combined. Remember that the mixture may still be a little warm, you don’t want scrambled eggs.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 35 – 45 mins or until baked, testing the centre of the cake with a skewer until it comes out clean.
Leave in the tin to cool for around 15 mins before removing from the tin onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Parkin can be eaten straight away. But it does improve with age by keeping tightly wrapped in an airtight container for 2 – 5 days, before cutting and eating.
Tips and FAQ’s
- Syrup vs Treacle – I used a mix of golden syrup and dark treacle in my list of Parkin ingredients. Dark treacle is often used when making bonfire toffee.
- A word about Oatmeal – For this Parkin recipe I would only recommend that you use Medium Oatmeal rather than the larger Porridge or Whole Oats that are normally associated with making porridge.
- Runny cake batter – This cake batter is a little runnier than normal sponge cake batter, which is why it’s important to line your cake tin with baking parchment to stop the batter from leaking out of the tin.
Treacle is also known as Molasses outside the UK. It is a very think, dark sticky syrup made from partially refined sugar. There are several grades of treacle, ranging from Golden Syrup to dark black treacle.
Oatmeal, Medium Oatmeal or Pinhead Oatmeal are a finer grain of Oats and is often used to make Porridge. Not to be confused with Whole Oats.
Parkin improves with age by keeping tightly wrapped in an airtight container for 2 – 5 days, before cutting and eating.
Other Ginger Flavoured Cakes that you may Like to Try
- Treacle and Glacé Ginger Parkin – This cake has a richer dark treacle flavour
- Sticky Ginger cake recipe – With a syrup glaze and a glace ginger topping. It’s a lovely alternative to a parkin cake if you are looking for a Ginger cake that doesn’t use Oatmeal.
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Old Fashioned Yorkshire Parkin
Ingredients – Imperial /oz are approx weights which are calculated by a 3rd party app
- 200 g Butter Unsalted
- 100 g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
- 100 g Black Treacle
- 150 g Golden Syrup
- 110 g Medium Oatmeal
- 180 g Self Raising Flour
- 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 3 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 Large eggs lightly beaten
- 2 tbs Milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170c conv/150deg Fan Assisted. Grease and line an 8"/20cm square, loose bottomed cake tin with baking parchment.
- Place the butter, Black Treacle, Golden Syrup and Brown Sugar in a pan over a low heat. Gently simmer until all the sugar and butter have melted.
- Take off the heat and leave to one side to cool a little.
- Place all the dry ingredients consisting of Oatmeal, Flour, Baking Powder and Ginger, into a large heat proof bowl and gently mix together.
- Pour the cooled sugar treacle mix over the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
- Add the milk and give it all a good mix. Gradually add the eggs and mix until well combined. Remember that the mixture may still be a little hot. Take care as you don’t want scrambled eggs.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 35 – 45 mins or until cooked, testing the centre of the cake with a skewer until it comes out clean.
- Leave in the tin to cool for around 15 mins before removing from the tin then leave to cool completely.
Notes
TIPS AND FAQ’S
- Syrup vs Treacle – I used a mix of golden syrup and dark treacle in my list of Parkin ingredients. Dark treacle is often used when making bonfire toffee.
- A word about Oatmeal – For this Yorkshire Parkin recipe I would only recommend that you use Medium Oatmeal rather than the larger Porridge or Whole Oats that are normally associated with making porridge.
- Runny cake batter – This cake batter is a little runnier than normal sponge cake batter, which is why it’s important to line your cake tin with baking parchment to stop the batter from leaking out of the tin.
Nutrition
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I’m going to make this parkin! I haven’t tasted any for years and I’d love to try it again.
Let me know how you get on Veronica.
Excellent ******** Best parkin I have tasted for a long while ..
Thank You.
David (68 years old and still baking and cooking)
Thanks David. At the moment, I can’t stop making it. It’s so good.