Parkin (cake) facts for kids
Yorkshire parkin
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| Place of origin | England |
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| Region or state | Northern England – Lancashire, Yorkshire |
| Main ingredients | Flour, oatmeal, molasses, ginger, lard or butter |
Parkin is a special gingerbread cake from northern England. It's traditionally made with oatmeal and black treacle. You'll often find it in Yorkshire, but it's also very popular in places like Lancashire.
When parkin is first baked, it's quite firm. But if you let it rest for a while, it becomes soft and even a bit sticky! In Hull and East Yorkshire, it can be a bit drier, more like a biscuit. Parkin is a traditional treat for Guy Fawkes Night on November 5th. However, people enjoy eating it throughout the colder winter months too.
Contents
What's in a Name?
The exact origin of the word parkin is a bit of a mystery. We know it's an old word, though! The first time parkin was written down was in 1728. This was in records from West Yorkshire.
An old type of cake called tharf cake is very similar to parkin. This cake was described in 1740. The word tharf is very old, meaning "unleavened" or "tough." This means the cake didn't rise much and was quite solid.
A Sweet History
Parkin is mostly found in northern England. This is because oats were a main food for people there, instead of wheat. Parkin is closely related to tharf cake. Tharf cakes were usually unsweetened and cooked on a griddle.
Traditionally, tharf cakes were made in early November, right after the oat harvest. For special parties, people would sweeten these cakes with honey.
Around 1650, sugar started to arrive in England from Barbados. Molasses was a leftover product from making sugar. Soon, molasses (also called treacle) became common. People started using it instead of honey to sweeten their tharf cakes.
Honey cakes were special treats, often eaten during holidays. They were baked to be hard, but they would get soft and sticky after being stored for a few weeks. Molasses has a special quality that helps cakes stay moist. Other gingerbreads from Northern Europe, like German Lebkuchen, also had this quality. They were baked hard and then softened for Christmas.
So, while parkin and tharf cake might seem like the same thing, parkin was always the sweet version of tharf cake.
Old-Fashioned Cakes
In some parts of Lancashire and South Yorkshire, parkin and tharf cake were used as the same word until about 1900. Over many years, the recipe and taste of these cakes changed a lot.
These cakes were often eaten by poorer people. Most homes didn't have ovens back then. So, the cakes were cooked on griddles or special baking stones over an open fire. The best parkin was made with fresh oatmeal, usually in the first week of November.
Festive Treats
In southern Lancashire and West Yorkshire, parkin is strongly connected to Guy Fawkes Night. This celebration happens on November 5th. The link between Guy Fawkes and parkin is the bonfire.
Early November had many Christian festivals. Like older Celtic festivals, these were celebrated with fires and special cakes. For example, on All Souls Day (November 2nd), people baked "soul cakes."
The Celtic festival of Samhain, on November 1st, was also celebrated with special cakes and bonfires. The church later made this into All Hallows (Halloween). When Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament in 1605, it gave England a new reason to celebrate with bonfires. This new celebration happened just four days later, on November 5th.
Even during the time of industrialization, when many holidays stopped, Guy Fawkes Night continued. By the 1800s, parkin and treacle toffee were traditional foods for Guy Fawkes Night. In Leeds, November 5th even became known as "Parkin Night"!
What's Inside Parkin?
The main ingredients for a Yorkshire parkin are oatmeal, flour, black treacle (which is like molasses), fat (like lard, or butter/margarine today), and ginger. Oatmeal and treacle are key ingredients for Yorkshire parkin. Lancashire Parkin often uses golden syrup, treacle, and soft brown sugar.
The flour used in parkin in England is usually self-raising flour. This means it already has a little bit of a leavening agent (like baking powder) mixed in. If you use regular flour, you need to add baking powder or a mix of sodium bicarbonate and cream of tartar.
One of the best things about parkin is how well it keeps its texture. It's baked to be firm, but after you store it in a sealed tin for a few days, it becomes soft and moist again. This is exactly how it's meant to be!
Images for kids
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Lancashire Parkin straight from the oven
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More treacle or brown sugar gives parkin a dark colour
