Parkin in a Mug: Sticky Ginger Cake in a Couple of Minutes

A pumpkin-patterned mug of dark, risen ginger parkin cake with a glossy domed top. A teaspoon lies on a linen napkin beside it, against a burnt-orange backdrop.

Every October there's a week when somebody in the house gives in and puts the heating on. In ours it was this week, and the dark evenings have turned up to keep it company.

So here's something to eat under a blanket: parkin, the sticky oat and ginger cake from the north of England, made in a mug. Proper parkin is baked in a tin and left for days to go sticky. This one won't make you wait that long..

Makes 1 · About 5 minutes · No oven

Time5 minutesMakesone mugMade inPumpkins Field Mug

Ingredients

  • 25g butter
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1 tsp black treacle
  • 1 tbsp dark brown soft sugar
  • 30g self-raising flour (about 3 tbsp)
  • 15g porridge oats (about 2 tbsp)
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • A pinch of mixed spice
  • 3 tbsp milk
An empty pumpkin-patterned mug on a wooden board, surrounded by small measured portions: butter, spoons of golden syrup and black treacle, brown sugar, flour, oats, ground ginger, a pinch of mixed spi
Everything you'll need

Method

  1. Step 1
    Put the butter, golden syrup, treacle and sugar in a large microwave-safe mug, then microwave for 20 to 30 seconds until the butter has melted.
    A hand pours golden syrup from a spoon into the mug, onto butter, treacle and brown sugar.
  2. Step 2
    Stir until it's smooth and glossy, then leave it for a minute so it isn't piping hot.
    A teaspoon stirs a glossy melted mixture of butter, syrup and sugar in the mug.
  3. Step 3
    Add the flour, oats, ginger and mixed spice and stir them in.
    Oats being tipped from a small ramekin into the mug, on top of flour and spices.
  4. Step 4
    Pour in the milk and mix until there's no dry flour hiding at the bottom.
    Milk being poured from a small jug into the thick ginger batter in the mug.
  5. Step 5
    Microwave on high for 60 to 90 seconds. Microwaves vary, so check it at 60 seconds: it's done when it has risen and the top feels just set.
    A fingertip gently tests the risen, just-set top of the cake in the mug.
  6. Step 6
    Leave it to stand for a minute or two before you go in with a spoon, because the cake and the mug will both be very hot.
    The steaming cake rests in the mug while a hand lays a spoon beside it, ready.

Tips

  • Use a big mug and don't fill it more than halfway. It rises in the microwave, and scraping treacle off the turntable is nobody's idea of a fun Saturday.
  • Don't overcook it. A minute too long and you've made a ginger biscuit you can't get out of the mug. It firms up a little as it stands, so take it out while it still looks slightly soft.
  • Not keen on treacle? Use another teaspoon of golden syrup instead. It'll be paler and milder, but still lovely.
  • If you like your ginger loud, chop up a piece of stem ginger and stir it in with the oats.
  • Custard on top is our favourite. A spoonful of cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream comes a close second.
  • Traditional parkin gets stickier over a few days in a tin. This one has never lasted more than a few minutes in our house, so I can't tell you what happens if you keep it.

Mugs to make it in

We made ours in our Pumpkins Field mug. Halloween is two weeks away and Bonfire Night isn't long after, and a pumpkin mug with a ginger cake in it felt about as October as you can get without wellies. Whatever mug you use, check it's microwave-safe before it goes in.

If you'd like something a bit more honest about what's going on, the I Just Love My Cake mug says it plainly. And if the cake tends to vanish before anyone else in the house knows it existed, the I Made A Cupcake But I Eated It mug is basically a signed confession. We've all been there.

For the next fortnight, the Scared Black Cat mug would go nicely with a pudding in front of a spooky film. There's plenty more in our Halloween mugs if you're in the mood.

Parkin is a Yorkshire favourite, so it only seems polite to point you towards our Yorkshire mugs too. Make it in one of those for a friend from God's Own County and see if it passes the test. Fair warning: I'm not promising it will.

If you know someone who's always in the kitchen, or always hanging around the kitchen waiting for whatever's coming out of it, have a look through our food and cooking mugs. A mug and a recipe to make in it is a pretty good little present, and nobody has to bake anything to give it.

Right. The kettle's on, the custard's warming and it's nearly dark outside. Not bad for a Saturday in October..

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