Then there were the healthier cereals that continued marketing to adults, like Corn Flakes, whose ads featured the cereal laden with fresh strawberries, or Grape Nuts, which began focusing on its protein content. They stayed attuned to the diet fads of the day, like “diet” cereals for calorie counters, and stuck with the messaging that one bowl could be all you needed. When introduced in 1967, Product 19 advertised it was for “working mothers, otherwise busy mothers and everyone in a hurry,” and provided 100% of your daily vitamin needs. Cereal could also be a snack, like Sugar Crisp claimed, or more than just a meal by itself. Many brands attracted buyers with recipes, hoping their product could move beyond the breakfast bowl, like a Cheerios recipe booklet that said you could crush them up and use them to bread pork chops. Through the 1960s, cereal boxes increasingly focused more on taste, fun, and flavor innovations, not on convincing consumers they need cereal in the first place—that work had already been done. Customers already knew that cereal was what they should be eating for breakfast, so the advertising shifted, focusing on which cereal to buy and what perks it offered. Cereal companies could play up technological advances that allowed for sugar coatings, bright colors, and freeze-dried fruit to be added. All that sugar? It was a selling point: It added energy! Flavor! It was baked right in so you didn’t have to sprinkle it on yourself!

A sort of date flapjack with a layer of orange marmalade in the middle, this is something that works brilliantly with coffee or the glowing drink above. The slices are fragile, so may I suggest you wait till they are cool before serving. (Although they are just as delicious if they crumble.) I should also add that they share with the eccles cake and the Christmas cake the ability to sit well aside a slice or two of cheese.

Makes 12
fine oatmeal 220g
fresh dates 250g (10)
butter 125g
rolled oats 100g
orange marmalade 600g

You will also need a high-sided baking or swiss roll tray, about 20cm x 30cm, lined with baking parchment.

Set the oven at 140C fan/gas mark 3. Put the oatmeal into the bowl of a food processor. Stone the dates and add to the oatmeal. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, pour into the bowl and process everything to a thick paste. Transfer to a mixing bowl, add the rolled oats and stir into the paste.

Place a good two thirds of the mixture into the lined baking tray then press gently over the surface and into the corners using the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes until the surface is lightly crisp to the touch.

A sort of date flapjack with a layer of orange marmalade in the middle, this is something that works brilliantly with coffee or the glowing drink above. The slices are fragile, so may I suggest you wait till they are cool before serving. (Although they are just as delicious if they crumble.) I should also add that they share with the eccles cake and the Christmas cake the ability to sit well aside a slice or two of cheese.

Makes 12
fine oatmeal 220g
fresh dates 250g (10)
butter 125g
rolled oats 100g
orange marmalade 600g

You will also need a high-sided baking or swiss roll tray, about 20cm x 30cm, lined with baking parchment.

Set the oven at 140C fan/gas mark 3. Put the oatmeal into the bowl of a food processor. Stone the dates and add to the oatmeal. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, pour into the bowl and process everything to a thick paste. Transfer to a mixing bowl, add the rolled oats and stir into the paste.

Place a good two thirds of the mixture into the lined baking tray then press gently over the surface and into the corners using the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes until the surface is lightly crisp to the touch.