Parkin Cake is a cake that is very special to me. My Nan would always make and have Parkin Cake on offer for us whenever we had a family gathering, birthday party or special occasion. We were always guaranteed a delicious and wholesome slice of homemade Parkin. Nowadays my Nan isn’t up for much baking, she is 89 years old but still on occasion does make us a batch of her delightful Parkin Cake.
Parkin Cake originates from Northern England and is basically a ginger cake using butter, wholemeal flour, brown sugar and golden syrup. Traditionally it also includes treacle but my Nan is a little cheeky and only adds treacle if she has it on hand or feels like it on the day, haha! The addition of treacle does enrich the cake even more, giving it a deeper colour and flavour. This version though I think is really lovely and I’m certain will appeal to most as it’s slightly more subtle. My beautiful Nan grew up in Northern England and that is why Parkin Cake is her most treasured.
I had attempted making her version of Parkin Cake many years ago to no avail. I asked her a couple of times for her exact recipe but you know that generation never followed actual recipes, they would just bake from their minds and it would work out, how cool is that?! So you can believe it was difficult for me to get any exact ingredient quantities out of her. I managed to get a rough idea of quantities and ingredients and that first time I attempted the cake, it failed. I decided to leave it to the master and not try again, until now. I was browsing my old recipe binder filled with hand written family recipes and magazine recipe cutouts, I’m sure you have a similar homemade book too?
I came across the hand written recipe for Parkin and decided I would try it again. In the book I also rediscovered an email my Nan sent me back in 2005 with her Parkin Cake recipe typed out, yay! It was similar to my hand written one so I studied and compared them both. That is where this recipe today was born. It’s basically my Nan’s recipe just slightly different quantities because honestly, each time she makes it it’s slightly different, because she bakes with no recipes and only from her mind – clever cookie she is!
Parkin Cake is also traditionally served plain, with no icing. My Nan told me that for many years she has wanted to try Parkin with orange icing, so that’s what I did. I made this cake over the weekend just gone and I bought some to her today, she absolutely loved it!! Especially with the addition of fresh orange buttercream frosting – delicious!
I’m so happy to share this very special recipe with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I do. Sam x
Parkin Cake
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Parkin Cake! Ginger spiced wholemeal cake with orange buttercream frosting! The perfect afternoon tea cake!
Ingredients
- Cake
- 250g salted butter, cubed and softened to room temperature
- 380g (2 cups) light brown sugar, lightly packed* see notes
- 2 large eggs, lightly whisked (each egg weighing approx. 55g each with shell on)
- 4 Tbsp (80g) golden syrup
- 600g (3 1/2 cups) wholemeal self-raising flour, or plain wholemeal flour + 6 tsp baking powder sifted together
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 cups (375ml) milk
- Orange Buttercream Frosting
- 60g salted butter, cubed and softened to room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups (340g) icing/confectioners sugar
- 3–4 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
- Finely grated zest of 1 medium-large orange, approx. 1 tablespoon
Instructions
- Cake
- Pre-heat oven to 160ºC (320ºF). Grease and lightly flour a large rectangle cake sheet pan measuring 25cm x 35cm (9 x 13 inches). Or line with parchment paper, set aside.
- If using plain wholemeal flour and not self raising, mix together plain flour and 6 teaspoons baking powder until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add softened butter. Using an electric hand beater or the paddle attachment on stand mixer, beat butter for 2-3 seconds until just creamy.
- Add brown sugar and cream together for 2 minutes until lighter in colour and fluffy. Scraping down the sides as needed.
- Pour in half whisked egg, beat until well combined. Add remaining egg and beat until well combined.
- Pour in golden syrup and beat until just combined. Scraping down the sides.
- Alternating flour and milk, add half of the flour along with the ground ginger and half of the milk. Beat on low speed until just incorporated.
- Add remaining flour and milk, beat on low speed until well incorporated but ensuring not to over-mix. NOTE: The batter will be quite thick, almost resembling a soft dough, it’s ok! It’s meant to be like that.
- Transfer batter to prepared cake pan. Smoothing out the top with a spatula.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden around the edges and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove and allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes.
- Carefully turn out and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Orange Buttercream Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add softened butter. Using an electric hand beater or the paddle attachment on stand mixer, beat butter for 2-3 seconds until just creamy.
- Add 1 cup icing sugar and 1 tablespoon orange juice, beat until just combined. Scraping down the sides as needed.
- Add remaining icing sugar and 2 tablespoons orange juice, beat until well combined, add another tablespoon orange juice if needed.
- Add orange zest and beat for a further 30 seconds until light, creamy and fluffy.
- Once cake has completely cooled, spread over frosting.
- Slice into squares.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Store in an airtight container, in the pantry or refrigerated, for 3-4 days.
*Lightly packed brown sugar means to press the sugar lightly into your measuring cup using the back of a teaspoon, add more, lightly press down again, until the amount of sugar reaches the brim of your measuring cup.
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