Join Alison, one of our chefs at the Barn, to learn how to make an autumn favourite Parkin

Parkin is a strongly-spiced sticky gingerbread cake, flavoured with treacle and dark brown sugar that is traditionally eaten on Guy Fawkes Night and it is what makes that day complete.

One of the earliest mentions of it comes a primary source from 1842; Richard Oastler wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Thornhill (who would later become the High Sherrif of Suffolk and a Tory MP) telling him that he’d recieved parkin on the 1st day of March from Mrs John Leach of Huddersfield.

The recipe does go back a little further than that though; most likely created some time during the Industrial Revolution as oats and treacle were important elements of the diet in those times. The word parkin was a popular surname in Yorkshire and means Peter. There are other parkins – such as Lancashire parkin – but it doesn’t contain oats and is not.

All indigents provided and you will leave with a tray of delicious parkin