Memories of my childhood

Recipe for parkin

Memories of my childhood

I remember every bonfire night would be quite a social to do! We lived around a green and most of the neighbours would come together with various comfort food offerings. From jacket potatoes, to hot dogs, to treacle toffee (ooh, must get my mums recipe and make this soon!) to this delicious parkin. My mum would make it a few days in advance as it is always best left so it goes all lovely and sticky.

The spicy smell of ginger wafting through my kitchen when I made this brought a smile to my face, hope you enjoy as much as I did...

Ingredients

110g butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

225g black treacle

125ml milk

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs, lightly beaten

200g caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan oven). 
2. Grease a 23 °— 10cm loaf tin and line with baking parchment, leaving about a 5cm overhang so that you can remove the cake more easily later. 
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and cloves together into a medium bowl and set aside.
4. Put the treacle and milk into a medium pan and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and add the bicarbonate of soda. The mixture will bubble and foam; set aside until it settles down.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until thickened and pale. Drizzle in the butter and whisk to combine. Then whisk the treacle mixture into the eggs.
6. Sift the flour mixture over the liquid ingredients and gently fold together until combined. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely

Happy baking xx