After my last post, more than one person asked in the comments...
What is Parkin?
For me, it is a slightly spicy, very dark and treaclely cake that my Mum always used to make in October and November.
It was always wrapped up and hidden away for a few days to 'let it improve'!
Then served in generous slices spread with butter.
The recipe I used last week was not my Mums recipe and came out rather paler than I recall, which set me to hunting through my old school recipe book. Sure enough, there it was, carefully copied from one of Mums books. A quick comparison told me that I was right. Mums recipe used a lot more treacle and more spices too.
I'll share Mums recipe with you.
Parkin
Ingredients
8oz / 225g Plain flour
1/2 tea spoon salt
1 Tea spoon Cinnamon
1 Tea spoon Mixed spices
1/2 Tea spoon Ginger
8oz / 225g Oatmeal
5 oz / 140 g Butter
4 oz / 110g Soft brown Sugar
4 oz / 110g Golden Syrup
4 oz / 110g Black treacle
1 Egg beaten
1/4 pint / 120mls Milk
Sift flour, salt and spices into a bowl and stir in the oat meal.
Place the butter, sugar, syrup and treacle into a pan over a low heat. Stirring until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Allow to cool slightly.
Beat the egg and stir into the milk and stir this mixture into the cooled syrup mixture.
Fold in the dry ingredients and pour into a 9 inch lined backing tin.
Place in to a preheated oven (Gas 3, 170C / 325F) bake for 1.5 - 1.75 hours or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
Cool in the tin for 10 - 20 mins, then allow to go cold on a cooling wire, before wrapping in kitchen paper and foil.
Store in an airtight tin for a few days before serving.
It is especially good when served with plenty of fresh butter.
Well, my new parkin recipe may not be as good as my childhood memories, but it still got eaten.
Sliced thickly and spread with butter.
The new recipe didn't say to try storing it for a while, maybe I'll give that a go, or maybe next time I fancy parkin, I'll use Mums recipe.
What ever, there is only a couple of slices worth left, so I have the next creation in the oven as I type.
It smells amazing.
Well it would, it has chocolate in it!
*
I did find time to stitch on Sunday and made great progress on St Nick.
His little piece of Holly garland has been joined by a fold of that beautiful blue overcoat.
AAAAaand I found my way to the shop after work yesterday, where I bought more brown thread, so the butterfly bodies are all finished and I even tidied the threads. Now I just need to find some fabric for sashing strips and corner stones.
Shall I do that?
Or shall I sit with St Nick?
While my lovely chocolate cake bakes...
Did I say it smells amazing?
10 comments:
Im sure it smells lovely. Id love to have a taste
Parkin's sound amazing, like a pumpkin pie without the pumpkin (all in a cake of course). Congrats on all the stitching time, it's fun to watch counted cross stitch's come together, they just seem to grow from nothing. Happy stitching this week.
I can tell by the recipe that Parkin would be delicious. I love those homey kind of cakes and I wonder could I swap out molasses for the treacle do you think? How nice to have your mom's recipe to follow though the one you made before looks so good too. Meanwhile, lots of lovely stitching going on. Always nice to have some seasonal things to work on as it is moving closer to December.
Parkin sounds amazing! Everyone has their favorite foods from childhood! I can't wait to see the butterflies all put together! Good work on the Santa, I know how long that stitching takes, especially when you are just starting out!
I would be sitting stitching and enjoying the smell of the cake baking 😃😃
The Parkin sounds interesting, thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thanks for sharing the recipe. I’ll have to give it a try one day. Nice to see St Nick growing. I bet the chocolate baking tasted as good as it smelt. I made a Hummingbird Cake on the weekend. Soooo good.
Might have to try one.....what's oatmeal? Like our rolled oats?
Hi Lou, I'm just having a nice catch up read on your newsy blogposts. I hope the change of job helps your health issues and I love how Queenie turned out - beautiful! You had a very productive time while zooming and also the Perkins cake sounds yummy. It sounds like a real traditional gingerbread sort of cake? Might have to be one I try - it seems like it will convert to GF quite nicely.
Oh I bet that cake did smell delicious, bet it’s gone by now.
I have never heard of black treacle. I googled it to discover that it is molasses. Maybe that is a language thing between the U.S. and Australia. I love it!
I will have to try this Parkin and your mom's recipe out!
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