Baked ginger parkin with rhubarb ripple ice-cream, hot-spiced treacle – by Andrew Pern

Parkin
This makes a 20cm (8in) square cake. Preheat the oven to 140°C or gas mark 1.

Ingredients (Serves eight)
10g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
2tsp ground ginger
½tsp ground nutmeg
½tsp mixed spice
75g oatmeal
175g golden syrup
50g black treacle
l00g butter
l00g soft brown sugar
1 beaten egg
2dsp milk

Method
1. Sieve together flour, salt, ginger, nutmeg, mixed spice.
2. Mix in the oatmeal.
3. Melt down the syrup, treacle, butter and sugar and simmer but don't boil.
4. Stir in the dry mix and blend together.
5. Add the beaten egg and milk to the mixture to create a soft, almost pouring consistency. Pour into a greased tin. Bake for 45 minutes until firm in the centre.
6. When cooked, allow to stand for 15 minutes before turning out. This can then be served. However, if kept in an airtight container, it will, like a good wine, improve with age. For best flavour, leave for three weeks.

Rhubarb ripple ice-cream
This can be made in advance and kept in the freezer (for no more than 48 hours) to keep its flavour.

Ingredients
(Serves eight)
100ml full-fat milk
250ml double cream
½ vanilla pod, split and scraped out
6 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
250g chopped, slightly stewed rhubarb
About 50g extra sugar to sweeten fruit

Method
1. Use the first five ingredients to make a crème anglaise. Mix then cool down and churn in an ice-cream machine.
2. Meanwhile, sieve the stewed rhubarb and reduce down the juices. Sweeten as necessary. When it is cool, add the pulp to the ice-cream to give the ripple effect then turn off the machine.

Hot spiced treacle
Ingredients
200ml golden syrup
1tbs cider
½tsp ground mixed spice

Method
Mix the ingredients together and warm through.

By Andrew Pern, chef-patron, the Star Inn, Harome, North Yorkshire