** Matrimonial cake

[Daisy]

I found this recipe in an old cookery book of my mother's. It is one of the easiest cakes I've ever made, and doesn't create a pile of washing up! What's not to like - oh and it's tasty too.

INGREDIENTS
125g/4 oz porridge oats
75g/3 oz wholewheat flour
50g/2 oz Barbados sugar (I wasn't sure what this is, and used soft brown sugar)
75g/3 oz butter

FILLING
225g/8oz stoned dates (I used a packet of chopped dates which worked fine)
25g/1 oz Barbados sugar
125ml/4fl oz water

1 Start with the filling: chop dates (if not done already) and cook gently with the sugar and water until like a paste, soft but not sloppy. Leave to cool.

2 Mix oats, flour and sugar.

3 Rub in butter until it is like a crumble mixture.

4 Put half this mixture into a greased tin, about 18cm (7") square. Pat down firmly.

5 Spread with the date paste.

6 Cover with the rest of the crumble mixture and pat down gently. *

7 Bake just above the middle of a moderately hot oven, Gas 4, 350F, 180C, for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.

8 Cut into squares while still hot, then leave to cool in the tin. Lift slices out when cool.


* Next time I make this recipe I'll sprinkle a few porridge oats on top before cooking to make it a bit less crumbly.

[Oma]

Love the sound of this yummy

[Oma]

Look what I found B&M sell it

[Nanto2girls]

Definately going to give this a go. It looks and sounds scrummy.

[Grauntie Mag]

Yum! Reminds me of a date slice. I think Matrimonial Cake sounds so much nicer.

[Gemini]

They sound very delicious! I think I will add dates to this weeks shopping order.

[Daisy]

Gem - I've just tried to add another packet to my Sainsburys order, but they'd only got 100g packets for snacks.

Oma - It's amazing what people seem to find in B&M. Well done. I've just had a look to see where our nearest one is - it's Southampton. I had to smile as the second nearest one is on the Isle of Wight! It's only 15 miles away, but they obviously didn't notice the stretch of water!

[Daisy]

I've made this a few times now and have used both ordinary oats and jumbo oats - both work ok.

I've tried adding a sprinkling of oats to the top but it didn't really work, and I sometimes find I need a bit more of the crumbly mixture to give a decent spread on both top and bottom, so next time I'm going to increase the amount of the crumble mixture by about 50% and see how that goes. My tin is a bit bigger than suggested, but there seems to be enough filling. It just needs a bit more crumble to hold together.

I think the name is traditional in Canada, and might have been served at weddings.