Kendal Mint Cake confectioners based in Kendal, supposedly left the boiled solution for glacier mints overnight and it turned cloudy and solidified. The 'mint cake' was then discovered in the morning. Wiper began producing mint cake, with several other confectioneries following suit. After Joseph Wiper emigrated to Canada in 1912 his great-nephew, Robert Wiper, took over the family business. Robert Wiper marketed Kendal mint cake as an energy snack used on famous expeditions, including the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, which largely led to its rise in international popularity amongst mountaineers and hikers. Romney's was founded in 1918, and used
Parkin (cake) "tharf" or "theorf" meant unleavened, un-fermented, solid tough or sodden in Old English. John Wycliffe in his translation of the Bible in 1389 (Mark Ch.14.v. 1) calls unleavened bread a 'tharf loove' Parkin is virtually unknown south of the Humber. It is eaten in an area where oats were the staple grain for the poor, rather than wheat. It is closely related to tharf cake – an unsweetened cake cooked on a griddle rather than baked. The traditional time of the year for tharf cakes to be made was directly after the oat harvest in the first week in November.