I opened the car’s glove compartment yesterday in search of a CD… but came across a couple of “past their sell by date” bananas instead. They’d been put there a few days earlier as an “on board” snack for a trip we’d made to Penrith. Rather than throw them out (or giving them to Fudge as a treat) I decided to make some banana parkin… with a ginger twist!

Parkin is a cake traditionally eaten in the autumn – and especially on Bonfire Night. It’s very popular, and thought to have originated, in the north of England – probably Yorkshire or Lancashire.

The method I used was taken from The Great Big Cookie Book by Hilaire Walden.

Banana parkin

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Ingredients

  

• 200 g/7oz plain flour
• 10 ml/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 10 ml/2tsp ground ginger
• 150 g/5oz medium oatmeal
• 60 ml/4tbs
• 75 g/3oz margarine
• 150 g/5oz/ golden syrup
• 1 egg beaten
• 3 ripe bananas mashed

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Grease & line an 18cm x 28cm / 7” x 11” tin.
• Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger, then stir in the oatmeal.
• Melt the sugar, margarine and syrup in a saucepan over a low heat, then stir into the flour mixture. Beat in the egg and mashed bananas.
• Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for about an hour until firm to the touch.
• Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into squares. (I made mine in a loaf tin, so I cut it into slices).

Parkin improves with age and, if stored in an airtight container, keeps for a couple of months.

Perfect with a mug of strong (Yorkshire… or Lancashire) tea!