PARKIN - YORKSHIRE GINGERBREAD CAKE

When you greatly dislike black treacle and have a moderate-to-high aversion to ginger you just have to question what you are doing with you life and why it is exactly that you sit on the kitchen floor for an hour and a half on a school night with your eyelids dying to call it a day and stare blankly at the oven waiting for a boatload of gingerbread cake to slowly take its shape (and that’s without even taking into consideration a prequel of flapjack incidents and ingredient crises and creativity crises and identity crises, the prospect of a cooling time a stone’s throw to eternity, four entire moons before you even get to slice the thing – it’s got to be STICKY, and the sudden urge to sack it all off and never mind the tooth decay, peacefully suck on the container of golden syrup that is invitingly sitting in front of you like you do on a baby’s bottle).

I don’t think I can find an answer to these questions and I most definitely don’t need a slab of vegan Parkin to come to the conclusion that I don’t know what I’m doing with my life; but what I do know is that as soon as I munched my way through the first of one too many squares of this soft spongy cake, this revelation made its sticky way to me – that catastrophes are source of the best stories; that solitude leads to adventures, bear-shaped brioche buns and good night’s sleep; that nine-to-five jobs cater for sunshiny Daves and little lions (and sponsor phone calls to them), and film cameras for lifetime accomplices; and that if you tie yourself to someone’s balloon and let it go, just before it bursts you get to touch the clouds and they feel like candy floss. And that, if from horrid treacle and soapy ginger comes heavenly Parkin, there’s got to be room for hope.

PARKIN

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

3 tablespoons water

225g (2 ¼ cups) medium oatmeal

110g (1 cup) self-raising flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon salt

225g (3/4 cup) golden syrup

50g (3 tablespoons) black treacle

110g (1/2 cup) margarine

110g (1/2 cup) dark brown soft sugar

1 tablespoon soya milk or other non-dairy milk

Preheat the oven to 140°C (280°F) and line a 20x20cm (8x8”) square tin with baking paper. In a small bowl, whisk together ground flaxseed and water and leave to set. In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, ginger and salt. Place golden syrup, treacle, margarine and sugar in a pan over low heat, stirring until the margarine is melted and the mixture is well combined. Gradually pour it into the dry mix and mix until combined. Next add the flaxseed mixture, then the milk. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until it looks firm. Let cool in the tin for 30 minutes then take out. When completely cool wrap in cling film or foil and keep for 3-5 days before cutting into squares and serving as it’ll become softer and stickier.