Autumn Storm
Cake and butter!
A very kind Hitty friend sent me a recipe for Ontbijtkoek…
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…a traditional recipe for gingerbread from the Netherlands, containing eleven spices, including Coriander. We had everything in the cupboard already! Our friend says the cake is traditionally eaten at Easter time, in soft and chewy slices, slathered with butter, alongside a cup of coffee at breakfast time. We thought it was delicious, and a perfect treat for yet another stormy day!
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Quimper Hittys 
You made it! I’m so glad! How did you find it, and could you taste all the spices? I hope the coriander came through. It’s a good cake for a cold morning with hot coffee, or maybe a chai.
We all loved the Ontbijtkoek, I could taste the pepper, the cloves and the anise…the others were more subtle, or I was unable to separate them…with or without butter, it was a treat with our Murchie’s Christmas Tea – mmm.
I associate this time of year with spicy moist cakes like Gingerbread and Parkin but I hadn’t connected them with Easter.
Well, I had to go look up Parkin, and I see that it is made in Northern England (Yorkshire and Lancashire) during the first two weeks of November – I still have a couple of days to try it out, thanks for the tip! I don’t know what makes Ontbijtkoek Easter-y, just tradition perhaps with the reason being lost in the mists of time!
Irealised that I hadn’t made Parkin for years and my Mum only made it for Bonfire night (Nov 5th) for the few years we went to neighbours house for a bonfire and fireworks evening! So I have made some to take to a meeting tonight. It is indeed a Northern england cake almost unknown in the South.
sounds very very tasty!!! looks very tasty
And it tasted very tasty!!! We loved making it, rummaging all through the spice cupboard, and feeling victorious when we found every single spice, not to mention pulling it out of the oven with the house smelling all gingerbready!