Yorkshire Parkin

Parkin is a cake traditionally associated with Yorkshire & is especially  eaten on bonfire night & through the winter.

It is a recipe that is very quick to make and the real patience comes after baking as it's one that should be left for anything up to 5 days before consuming it as the flavours develop and deepen resulting in a lovely sticky and fiery cake full of flavour.

For 14-16 peices you will need :

200g butter
1 large egg
200g golden syrup
85g treacle
85g light soft brown sugar
100g medium oatmeal
200g self raising flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
4 stems of ginger ( with syrup reserved)

• Start by melting the butter, sugar and both syrup & treacle in a pan on a low heat. You don't need to let it simmer or reach boiling point. As soon as it's all melted, remove from the heat and set aside

• In a bowl combine the flour, spices And oatmeal and stir together till it's all incorporated.

• Chop up the stem ginger as roughly or as finely as you like and stir into the flour

• Whisk the egg and add into the cooled melted butter mixture. Add all of this into the bowl with all the dry ingredients and stir till all evenly combined.

• Pour the mixture into a 22cm square greased & lined tin.

• Bake at 140c fan for 45-50 minutes until the cake feels firm and slightly comes away from the edges of the tin.

• Leave to slightly cool, and whilst in the tin brush the top of the cake with the ginger syrup from the jar of stem ginger

• Once completely cool, cover the whole cake with greaseproof paper and place in an airtight container for a minimum of 3 days ( if you can resist ) and serve on it's own or as my kids have it, with hot custard