A Year of Cooking Genealogically, Matrimonial Cake

I have to admit I was as much intrigued by the name and description of the cake as the recipe itself.  The text reads "Probably you have this already but if not it's worth making.  I think it must owe its name to the fact that any beau to who it's served keeps coming back for more".  Admittedly my first inclination was to run for the Google and look up the history of Matrimonial Cake.  But I held off, and decided to give this recipe a whirl.  Please note, this is not the first entry in the book, but I did have all the ingredients on hand, so it gets first billing.

On to the recipe:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats*
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup butter**
1 cup brown sugar
 1 teaspoon soda***

*Doesn't specify quick or long cooking; I used quick as I had it on hand
**Salted stick sweet cream butter
**Executive decision decided that soda is Baking Soda

Instructions read "Mix these thoroly (don't think that milk has been accidentally omitted - it's a dry mixture)"

1 pkg dates, stoned & cut*
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water

*Executive decision meant using an 8 ounce packaged of dates that I chopped into a small dice

Instructions read "Boil until thick"

Final instructions read "Put half the dry mixture in a pan & spread with date mixture - cover with the other half and bake till a nut brown".

So, artistic cooking license was required here in several places.  There is no reference to the size of the pan, so I used an 8 x 12 ceramic baking dish.  There is no recommendation for buttering the dish, but I did take the modern route and sprayed it with cooking spray.  Finally, there is no recommendation about oven temperature or baking time.  I decided to go with 325 convection for 30 minutes. 

I could tell after assembling the dual ingredients that this was 'cake' in name only, and more resembled a date cookie bar.  In the future I will do more to document the steps of baking for your faithful reading reference, but the final product looks like this. A chewy bar type cookie that is not too sweet and really freakin delicious.  I think, given the ingredient proportions that I might have gone with a smaller 9 x 9 baking pan.  While tasty, the topping was a bit dry.  But my guesses on the baking time were correct, and it was completely necessary to butter or spray the dish.  I would probably increase the amount of dates to a pound to increase the filling to topping ratio.

I was intrigued by the name Matrimonial Cake, so once I was finished baking, I checked Google for the history.  Wikipedia defines it as "A date square (that) is a Canadian dessert or coffee cake made of cooked dates and with an oatmeal crumb topping. In Western Canada it is known as Matrimonial Cake. It is often found in coffee shops as a sweet snack food. There can be nuts added to the base layer or crumb topping. There can be candied peel added to the date stuffing for a contrasting texture."  The two blogs below give their guesses on the background on the cake's meaning, though there isn't a definitive answer.

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2008/07/matrimonial-cake.html 
http://www.littlegraybird.ca/littlegraybird/2011/4/18/matrimonial-cake.html

My theory as to why it appears in my little book is noted in the The Old Foodie blog, stating that the recipe appeared in the 1933's in Ohio.  Given the fact that my relatives are from Northeastern and Middle Ohio, this guess fits as well as any.  Kate's description works for my beau; DH proclaimed them delicious and would definitely 'come back for more'!