How to Cook Ginger Parkin
Baking an old English classic…
Parkin is one of my favourite ’sweet things’. We have featured it on our menus on and off for a few years now and it is always popular. Parkin is a cake which is made in accordance to the English county you were brought up in; Yorkshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire are the homes of the traditional parkin and it is from these counties that its original names ‘tharf’ and/or ‘thor’ cake come from.
I have been told that Parkin was traditionally served in and around Guy Fawke’s Night, a sweet treat whilst watching the flames of your local bonfire engulf the poor Guy Fawkes.
Parkin is traditionally served as a cake with afternoon tea but I like to serve it hot with custard and a generous spoon of golden syrup. A scoop of gingerbread ice cream (vanilla will do the trick) sends the whole thing off the taste sensation map-you have to try it.
So here’s a Yorkshire parkin recipe, served hot. If you live outside England nobody will have heard of it and you will become instantly popular-take all the credit.
Serves 6-8
Turn your oven on and heat to 140 degrees C/275 F/gas mark 1. Butter a 20cm/8″ cake tin or individual pudding molds. Now weigh out the following:
100g/3 & 3/4oz Self Raising Flour 10g/2tsp Ground Ginger 80g/2&3/4oz Oatflakes 2.5g/1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg and mixed spice 175g/61/4oz Golden Syrup 50g/13/4oz Black Treacle 100g/3 &3/4oz Unsalted Butter 100g/3 &3/4oz Soft Brown Sugar 10ml/2tsp Full fat milk 1 medium Egg beaten
Sieve the flour with a pinch of salt, add the ginger and spices followed by the oatflakes. Take a small saucepan and gently melt together the treacle, syrup, sugar and butter, do not allow to boil.When all has melted pour it into the flour-spice mix.
Stir in the egg and milk, the mix should be quite runny. Pour into your chosen mold and bake for approximately one and a quater hours or until the mixture feels firm in the centre.
If you are going to serve it as a cake then pouring a spiced syrup over the lot at the end of baking wouldn’t go amiss…
Take a small pan and whisk together over a low heat the following; 200g/7oz golden syrup 10ml/2tsp dry cider 2 & 1/2g/1/2 tsp mixed ground spice. Heat gently but do not boil.
If you serve this hot then be generous with the custard/syrup and ice cream, you won’t regret it. Trust me, I’m a chef 
Miles,
I’m with you on this one, it’s a fabulous cake. Just one thing though some recipes require us to wrap the cooked cake in grease proof paper and foil and keep it for a week before cutting to create a sticky texture. I shall give your recipe a go instead.
Cid
April 5, 2008 @ 8:41 am
Miles,
This is a new one on me (I know of Parkin but not like this and it will have to be added to my recipe folder.
I shall never lose weight!
Elsie
April 5, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
Wow - I, my wife and kids will be grateful for this - off to find black treacle and golden syrup!
April 5, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
Cid,
I have heard of it being left for a week or more to take on more flavour but I couldn’t wait that long!
Miles
April 5, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
Dave & Elsie,
Good uck with it-let me know how you get on.
Miles
April 5, 2008 @ 4:14 pm
I lived in Hull, Yorkshire for two or three years in the mid 1950’s. Have now been in Aus since 1969.
Memories of ginger parkin cake made with molasses started to haunt me around 20 years ago - but only now have I found what sounds like a pretty authentic recipe. Can’t wait to try it - I’ll even use scales so it is right before deciding to tweak the recipe in any way - such as a pile of grated ginger in the final syrup mix.
I may well be back to comment later
PS - I didn’t realise it was a Yorkshire ‘thing’.
July 14, 2008 @ 10:46 am
Jaadha,
Glad you find the post of interest, parkin is one of those desserts that keeps making you want to go back to it.
Good luck with the recipe, I hope you enjoy it. Welcome to the site and thanks for commenting.
Miles
July 14, 2008 @ 11:32 am
made this but it came out quite flat..i used an 8″ sq tin and the parkin was no more than 3/4″ high.
should i have lined the buttered pan with parchment?
i dont think i did anything wrong viz a viz the ingredients (except perhaps a bit too much ginger)…
any suggestions would be appreciated.
September 9, 2008 @ 9:10 pm
Ed,
Welcome to the site, I don’t understand that because we use this recipe a lot. Try this recipe, same method but using plain flour with bicarbonate of soda:
115g butter plus extra for greasing tin
225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
half tsp salt
110g coarse oatmeal
175g dark muscovado sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
115g black treacle
150ml milk
1 beaten egg
Preheat oven to 180C./gas4. Grease a non stick loaf tin with some butter. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl, add oatmeal and sugar, make a well in the centre.
Gently melt butter, syrup and treacle and stir well. Leave to cool. Beat milk and egg together and set aside. Mix butter and syrups into flour, add milk and eggs and incorporate well.
Pour into tin and bake for approx 50 minutes. Leave to cool for half an hour before turning out.
Hope you have better luck with this one Ed, thanks for letting me know.
Kind regards
Miles
September 9, 2008 @ 9:44 pm