Parkin

Nope, I am not talking about manoeuvring a motor vehicle into a designated stopping space.

Neither am I talking about coats (that’s a Parker).

I am, of course, talking about cake.

Parkin is a traditional Yorkshire cake and is the cake of autumn nights and bonfires as it is full of ginger and spices. It is also traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night, so . . . what more excuse is needed for cake.

The texture of Parkin comes from oatmeal, but for this one I have omitted that and used a mix of ground almonds and flax-meal instead.

The flavours are very like gingerbread, but with a sugary warmth from the syrups. Side note – in order to reduce the amount of refined sugar I swapped the treacle and golden syrup for date syrup and agave. If you prefer to but the former back in, no problem.

So grab a hunk of cake, a sparkler and get outside and draw some swirly patterns in the dark!

Parkin Cake

Servings: 8 pieces, approximately
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Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter
50g coconut sugar, or dark brown sugar if preferred
25g date syrup, or treacle if preferred
100g agave syrup, or golden syrup if preferred
100g gluten-free self-raising flour
1/2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
40g ground almonds
10g flax-meal
1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
1 egg
1 tbsp milk

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius / 160 fan / 350 Fahrenheit. Grease and line an 8 inch square tin.
Melt the butter, sugar and syrups together over a low heat until just combined. Allow to cool a little.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, ground almonds, flax-meal, ground ginger, nutmeg and mixed spice.
Add the dry ingredients to the melted butter, sugar and syrups and mix until combined.
Beat the egg and milk together and then add to the mixture and mix until combined.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle come out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an air-tight container out of direct sunlight.