The Parkin Cake is a traditional gingerbread cake made with oat flour and black treacle, originating from Northern England.
Often associated with Yorkshire, it is widespread and popular elsewhere, particularly in Lancashire where it is generally made with golden syrup instead of treacle.
It is mainly consumed in the south in an area where oats were the staple grain for the poor, rather than wheat.
It is closely related to Tharf cake, an unsweetened cake cooked on a griddle rather than baked.
The main ingredients of a Yorkshire parkin cake (the recipe that follows) are: oat flour, self-raising flour, black treacle, fat (traditionally lard, but modern recipes use butter, margarine, or rapeseed oil), and ginger.
It is traditionally consumed during Guy Fawkes Night (November 5th, a.k.a. Bonfire Night) which celebrates Guy Fawkes’ grand failure to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: English
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for a 9-inch square pan:
- 2 oz black treacle
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 2/3 cup self-raising flour
- 2 eggs
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- to taste nutmeg
- 2 tbsps milk (optional)
Tools
- 1 Baking Pan
Steps
Melt the treacle with the sugar and butter. Do not boil.
Mix the flours (if you don’t have self-raising flour add 1 teaspoon of baking powder), salt, nutmeg, and ginger.
Add the treacle mixture, eggs, and milk (optional).
Mix, transfer to the baking pan, and bake at 285°F for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Better if eaten the next day.
Black Treacle:
Treacle, in general, is considered by the industry a byproduct of sugar processing, yet it has much more beneficial properties than the main product from which it is discarded, and this is known as the treacle paradox!
Differences between black and white:
– White treacle is of little commercial value, obtained from the first extraction from sugar. The taste is quite pleasant.
– Black Treacle: more valuable, is obtained from the second extraction of sugar. The taste is less pleasant and more bitter.
The black variety is used in rum production and as a food additive.
Treacle from sugar beets, considered of lower quality, is widely used in the production of animal feed.
Treacle from sugar beets, considered of lower quality, is widely used in the production of animal feed.
