A little bit of a guest post from my mum here, heck, half my family are in on this one! Every year around Halloween/Bonfire night we have this in my family. It’s a lovely, moist, chewy cake and provides just the pick me up you need for elevenses or afternoon tea at this time of year. It is also insanely easy! But, I shall leave you with my mum’s words from her email of the recipe…
This was my grandmother’s recipe (my father’s mother) and I was told she got it from my Great Aunt Peggie
It is a very easy recipe, especially since it uses cups and tablespoons – not as in proper cup measures, but, I believe originally, teacups. I do use proper cup measures and that works too, but before I bought any I used the tried and tested Peter Rabbit measure.
2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
Almost a cup of soft brown sugar
1 large tablespoon of lard (Butter or Trex if you have a vegetarian)
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 cup of hot milk
Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
– Pre heat oven to Gas Mark 3, 170C or 325F.
– Line a tin (8” x 10”, or I use a roasting tin – if it is too big, you get thinner slices of cake) with baking parchment.
– Mix all the dry ingredients together, being sure to squish any lumps in the sugar.
– Warm the milk, lard and syrup together until all melted.
– Add the milk, etc. to the dry ingredients and beat well.
– Dissolve the bicarb. In a little cold milk and add to mixture.*
– Bake until golden and spongy, depends on tin size, so check after 20 mins and play by ear.
– If you want Parkin, add some fine oatmeal and some chopped, preserved ginger, together with a little extra milk, lard and syrup, but it is not as light and spongy as the plain gingerbread.
*I actually just put the bicarbonate in with the dry ingredients, I’m guessing this step is just a bit of a throwback given the age of the recipe.
Anna in the kitchen 