Michigan family's heirloom is 141-year-old fruitcake

[jpak]

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/12/14/141-year-old-fruitcake-is-michigan-familys-heirloom/

TECUMSEH, Mich. — Some families pass down jewelry, watches or even recipes. But a Michigan family has its own heirloom: a 141-year-old fruitcake.

“It’s a great thing,” said Julie Ruttinger, the great great granddaughter of Fidelia Ford, who baked the cake in 1878. “It was tradition. It’s a legacy.”

The cake was initially preserved to honor Ford. She established a tradition of baking the cake and letting it age for a year before serving it during holiday seasons. Ford died at age 65 before her 1878 cake could be eaten, and by the time the holidays arrived, the family considered her handiwork a legacy, not food.

Until his 2013 death, the cake was in the care of Ruttinger’s father, Morgan Ford, who was Fidelia Ford’s great-grandson. He had stored it in an antique glass dish on the top shelf of a china cabinet in his Tecumseh home — which is where it remains today.

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[Xipe Totec]

1. Are they waiting for it to become edible? If so, they're in for a disappointment. nt

[BuffaloJackalope]

2. My fruitcake theory

There is only one fruitcake in the world. It's passed around throughout all time & space, far into the future and far into the past. And nobody ever eats it.

[lkinwi]

3. I actually like fruitcake and not ashamed to admit it.

[Backseat Driver]

4. Over my 50+ years of adult life,

I've tried making only 1 brandy-soaked one from scratch, beginning in October...like aged egg nog better, LOL! Grew up on those rectagular melba-toast size slices of those rectangular Claxton ones, LOL. Don't like citron but dried fruit and nuts is A-okay in those I choose to eat if some is available which almost never happens cuz everyone hates it or makes fun - this story,

https://www.claxtonfruitcake.com/

[mindem]

5. I love fruit cake

and make it with lots of booze in it. Gooooood stuff!