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Tue 23 Dec, 2003 10:41 am
I was aware that fruitcake could hold up a good long while...but this long?
TECUMSEH, Mich. - A fruitcake that is an estimated 125 years old - an artifact of holiday cheer - is expected to make a tasty debut of sorts when it's introduced on national TV.
Morgan Ford, 83, of Tecumseh, is taking his great-grandmother Fidelia Bates' fruitcake to Burbank, Calif., to share a piece with Jay Leno on Tuesday's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
The cake rests in a glass bowl, covered by a glass top. A large raisin and what might be a clove are visible among the brown mass - Ford says it's fossilized - that emits a pleasant odor of spices.
Its baker died in Berkey, Ohio, in 1879 and the cake remained untouched for 85 years.
Not much is known about the origin of the cake; even the recipe is lost.
"I don't think my dad knew anything more about it than I do now," Ford said.
Ford intends to pass along the fruitcake to his son, James Ford, of Tecumseh.
"I guess I don't have anything else that's a family heirloom," James Ford said. "It's history. I think my dad gets a little more fun out of it than I do."
Sounds like something I would win as a door prize.
Might make a good doorstop though, roger.
Most fruitcakes are very old.
They are given one Christmas as a present. Kept by the receiver until next Christmas, when they are given again as a present.
It has been calculated that the average life span of a fruitcake is 29 years.
You have to be weird to actually eat a fruitcake.
I think it has to be an acquired taste. Old fruitcake doesn't sound very appetizing. Some liquors improve with age, but does food? What keeps it from molding?
Oppression? I'm not certain about that. I've thought fruitcake was a clear and present danger for years.
What makes you think mold could live on the stuff, colorbook?
Should be doing the show from Claxton, Ga 'The Fruitcake Capital of the World'.
Claxton
I saw the headline and was disappointed to find this was not a thread slogging Dick Cheney.....
Mr Stillwater wrote:Should be doing the show from Claxton, Ga 'The Fruitcake Capital of the World'.
Claxton
On a per capita basis, possibly. In absolute terms, you probably haven't been to southern California.
I like fruitcake.
There, I said it. I'm out of the closet.
Provide address, Greyfan. Send freight charges in advance, cuz these babies are dense.
Thanks for the offer. But I am able to acquire all the fruitcake I need locally, there being no great demand for the stuff.
Merry Christmas!
My Mum makes the best boiled fruitcake in the world. 125 years old? Any she makes are lucky to make it to 125 minutes!
125 years old! Hah!! I gots me a 5,000 year old fruitcake!!
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