THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

KLONDIKE CAKE. – ½ cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, ½ cup molasses, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ cup sour milk, 1 teaspoon soda, 2 cups flour.

~Compiled by The Woman’s Department – Canadian Farm. Canadian Farm Cook Book. Toronto: Canadian Farm, 1911.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• ½ c. butter
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ c. molasses
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ c. sour milk (to make sour milk use ½ Tb. lemon juice or vinegar and add milk to ½ cup mark)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 c. sifted all-purpose flour.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a ten-inch square cake pan with butter.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, salt and sugar with a wooden spoon, until light and fluffy.

Lightly beat the eggs with a fork, and add them to the creamed mixture;  beat in thoroughly, until the batter mixture is smooth.

Add the molasses, and beat it in thoroughly.

Add the cinnamon, and blend in well.

Sift and measure the flour.

Add the baking soda to the sour milk, and stir with a fork until it froths.

Beginning and ending with the soda and milk mixture, alternately add portions of the liquid, and then the sifted flour, to the batter;  beat thoroughly after each addition;  the batter will be smooth and light in texture.

Pour the batter into the buttered baking pan, and smooth the surface with a broad-bladed knife.

Bake in a preheated oven, at 350F for approximately 45 minutes, or until a cake tester, when inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, and cool on a rack for a few minutes before serving.

Klondike Cake is especially delicious served warm; it is an ideal accompaniment for fresh, homemade applesauce.

A note from Patricia: This looked to me like a gingerbread recipe, but without the ginger, and it looked delightful, so it was next on my list to try. It’s wild to me that the original recipe from 1911 had just a list of the ingredients, and there were literally no instructions on how to make the cake. Thank goodness my Aunt had figured out all of the steps. I substituted the all-purpose flour for 1:1 gluten-free baking flour, and this “Klondike Cake” turned out beautifully. It was sweet and flavourful, deliciously moist, and was a down-to-earth kind of cake. I initially thought it was strange that my Aunt suggested to pair this with applesauce, but I went ahead and made some from scratch with a couple of apples that I had lying around (I simmered them with some Apple Cider, cinnamon, and lemon juice). And now I get it. It really is the perfect pairing, and was spectacular. My whole house smelled like Fall, and I absolutely adored this warm right from the oven. However, it was even better the next day (for breakfast… yikes!).

Do not slam the oven door or in any way jar a cake while baking, lest it fall.

~Kellogg, Mrs. E. E.  Science in the Kitchen.  Battle Creek, Michigan: Health Publishing Company, 1892.

Regarding food supplies, etc. in the Klondike:

For the information of those who have never been in that country I give some notes on the amount of provisions required, first stating that you will require at least 50 percent more in that region than you would in a more southern latitude. The cold suffered (often intense) for at least seven months in the year conduces to a vigorous appetite.

~Ogilvie, William. The Klondike Official Guide – Canada’s Great Gold Field The Yukon District. Toronto: The Hunter, Rose Co., Limited, 1898.

Re: the availability and costs of food in the Klondike….

…”everything seems topsy-turvy up here. Why, to-day I saw a man come in with a box of apples which the crowd begged him to open. He was selling those apples at a dollar apiece, and the folks were just fighting to get them.”

~Service, Robert, W. The Trail of ’98. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1910.