Taste Luseland Museum’s ration cake baked in an old cook stove

By Joan Janzen

LUSELAND - The Luseland Museum will be doing some old-fashioned baking on Saturday afternoon, June 14th, and they’re extending an invitation to join them as they prepare and bake a Ration Cake. The museum’s theme for 2025 is “80 years since VE Day”; therefore, they will be baking as they did in the 1940s when rationing was a part of daily life.

Jean Halliday from the museum said they had been looking for activities that would highlight wartime on the prairies. At that time, rationing of food items caused enormous challenges.

On June 14th, Luseland Museum invites visitors to help them do some wartime baking on a wood stove, much like women did in the 1940s when rationing was a part of daily life.

“We will bake a cake from a wartime cookbook,” Jean explained. They’ll also make a second cake without milk, butter or eggs.

“We have an operational wood stove that we’ll use and do the baking in the oven on the street. Our only challenge is a windy day would cause uneven baking!” Jean said.

Beginning in May of 1942, sugar was rationed to half a pound per week per person. According to Jean’s research, during canning season people could receive an additional 25 pounds of sugar per year.

“It sounds like a lot in this day and age when we don’t even make cookies, but when they made everything and canned endlessly, it wasn’t much,” she added. During those years women had to be creative in their baking.

Museum members will be leading the baking event and are hoping to have many helping hands join in the preparations, baking and tasting afterwards. Visitors are also invited to check out the wartime displays at the museum.

The displays feature several local individuals who served in World War II. The “Wartime on the Prairies” displays show how the war impacted life on the prairies, from rationing of food and gasoline to letters from overseas and Victory Bonds.