One Michigan family is continuing a time-honored holiday tradition involving a very old fruitcake.
Julie Ruttinger, of Tecumseh, says her family will not eat the 141-year-old "heirloom" fruitcake that has been passed down for generations. The tradition began when Fidelia Ford, Ruttinger's great-great-grandmother who baked and aged fruitcakes for a year, died before her last cake could be eaten in 1878. Family members then decide to preserve the final fruitcake in tribute.
The legacy was most recently continued by Ruttinger's father, Morgan Ford, who kept the cake until his death in 2013. A few years before he passed, Morgan brought the cake to Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show.” Leno did taste it!
According to a food expert on the 'Today' show, the dessert is actually safe to eat because it doesn't contain water necessary to grow any bad bacteria.
Source:New York Post