Weekly Bake - Parkin

Before I move on to the my Weekly bake, I just wanted to say a very big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my previous post. I was incredibly touched and moved to tears by your very kind words and I really appreciate you taking the time to watch the video and also to leave such lovely comments. I really don't feel brave in the slightest, but incredibly lucky that I still have the little things in life to make me smile. Yes we all want more in life and I won't lie that some days it can be very lonely and after four years of living a life in these four walls, I do have times where I feel incredibly isolated, but thanks to all you lovely people, you have really brought a little of 'life' back into my life, so thank you!

This week I wanted to stick to the Northern tradition of baking Parkin around the 5th of November. Apparently the origin of this cake is unknown, but it was originally enjoyed in Yorkshire and Lancashire, but these days I think it is enjoyed all through the Country. It is not something I have baked before as I am not the worlds biggest fan of treacle, I find it rather bitter, but surprisingly the actual parkin isn't that bitter at all. For this recipe I used The Great British Book of Baking, that I have spoken of here.

Parkin is traditionally made with oatmeal, flour, butter, ground ginger and also candied ginger. I adapted the recipe to make it Gluten and Dairy free by ensuring that I used gluten free oats, which I ground in the food processor, Doves All Purpose Gluten Free flour, Pure dairy free spread and a little Xantan gum.

 

I have a deep love for ginger, so I doubled the amount of candied ginger and I really think it makes the bake a little less dry, as Parkin tends to be on the dry side. This recipe states that you should wrap it in foil and leave for a week before you eat it, but I was to ill prepared and to curious to know how it tasted to wrap it up, instead it's been enjoyed by us all this week, maybe next time I will try wrapping it up just to see what difference it makes. 

 

 

I have finally managed to get around to changing the Weekly Bake grab button, so if any of you fancy joining in every now and then when you bake during the week just add your bake to the link-in section at the bottom of my Weekly Bake posts, which will happen every Friday. You can also add the button to your blog simply by going to your Layout in Blogger and adding the code to the HTML section of  'Add a Gadget'. You will find the code just underneath my Weekly Bake button on the right hand side of my blog.

 

 

Wishing you all a very lovely weekend.

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo