1) Parkin is still a popular cake in Yorkshire, traditionally associated with Bonfire night.
1729 he Mistress did persuade her to ask Sarah Priestley ... to steale meal from her master to make a parkin on, Elland. The parkin ‘pigs’ made for that occasion have currents for eyes, or ‘curn een’. According to Peter Brears the earlier parkins were thin oatmeal cakes, baked directly on the ‘bakstone’, and it was the use of ovens and bi-carbonate of soda from the mid-nineteenth century that led to the modern parkin. Treacle or golden syrup was an essential ingredient and references to its use date from the early 1700s. The origin remains obscure and it is tempting to link the word with ‘Parkin’ as a pet form of Peter, or with Parkin as a surname. However, no evidence for such an origin has been discovered.