Family cherishes 141-year-old fruitcake

Not satisfied with just passing down the family recipe, the Ford family of Michigan has held onto a fruitcake baked by one of its ancestors in 1878. Fidelia Ford had an annual tradition of letting a fruitcake age for a year and serving it during the holidays, and she left behind an uneaten cake when she died. Her great-great-granddaughter, Julie Ruttinger of Tecumseh, Mich., still has it. “It was tradition. It’s a legacy,” Ruttinger said.

How could a fruitcake last so long? The cake’s dense texture and use of dried nuts and fruit inhibit bacteria growth, as does the alcohol in which many fruitcakes are soaked, said Ben Chapman, a food safety researcher at North Carolina State University. In 2003, Ruttinger’s father, Morgan Ford, showed off the cake on The Tonight Show and even took a bite of it. He said it tasted like thrashed wheat.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Julie Borg’s in-depth report on the science of fruitcake.