Yorkshire Parkin

Brand: Lottie Shaw

Price: Gift from Kat

Found At: Gift from Kat

The new university teachers have arrived, and after a few months of relative solitude, my life is suddenly bustling with old friends and new faces! Westgate often draws more heavily from the UK – I don’t know if it is the visa or if it is the assumption that UK English sounds more sophisticated, but usually, there are at least one or two Americans in any new cohort. This time, however, I find myself completely outnumbered. On the downside, I now have to speak three languages on a daily basis: True English, Japanese, and “Oy Gov’nah.” On the upside, they came bearing gifts.

Kat – being from Yorkshire – brought me a “Yorkshire Parkin,” which is a cake made from oatmeal, treacle, and more ginger than I was expecting. Needless to say, a gift of snacks could not have fallen on a more appreciative recipient. Even more so because I’ve been watching Townsends and pining after their historical cake episodes, wallowing sadly in the absence of an oven in my life. But since, to my American mind, anything English is more or less “historical,” this loaf was exactly what I had been wanting. It even tasted authentically old-fashioned. It is remarkably dense, but it is also remarkably good. I only managed to eat about two centimeters of cake in one sitting, but I enjoyed every millimeter. Its moist and squishy and oatmealy and tastes like a chewy gingerbread loaf. It’s the perfect treat for long autumn nights and changing leaves.

But I’ll have to keep it in the freezer until then, because right now it’s still 80 degrees in Nagoya.