Civil War Fruit Cake Recipe -150+ Years Old! (2024)

FAQs

Can fruit cake last 100 years? ›

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these seemingly indestructible pastries typically stay fresh for six months in the pantry and up to a year when refrigerated. But anecdotally we know that they can last for decades; some of the oldest have been preserved for more than a century.

Over the years fruitcake has garnered an infamous reputation for being extremely shelf stable but no one else quite understands that like the Ford family here in Michigan. At 145 years old I'd say the Ford family fruitcake is well past its "best by" date!

Fruitcake aficionados will tell you that the best fruit cakes are matured – or “seasoned” in fruitcake lingo – for at least three months before they are cut. Seasoning not only improves the flavor of the fruitcake, but it makes it easier to slice.

Fruitcakes were so rich, they were considered sinful and were outlawed in Europe in the early 18th century. Restrictions eased later in the century.

Fruitcake lasts longer than most other cakes because it is filled with nuts and candied fruit. It will last even longer if you sprinkle it with a spirit like brandy.

What typically makes fruitcake last so long is its super dense texture. This texture prevents, let's say, less than appetizing things from setting up camp in the cake's crevices. Additionally, a lot of the ingredients in our fruitcakes are dried or glaceéd, so they don't contain much moisture.

A 141-year-old fruitcake, baked by Fidelia Ford, in 1878, sits in the home of Dorothy Ford, in Tec*mseh, Mich. Fidelia died before the cake was served and the family, out of respect of her memory, decided not to eat it and has instead passed it down for generations.

Marie Rudisill died in Hudson, Florida, on November 3, 2006, at the age of 95, just before the publication date of her last book, Ask the Fruitcake Lady: Everything You Would Already Know If You Had Any Sense, on November 7.

Linzer Torte is the world's oldest known cake and is named after the Austrian city of Linz. It has been documented as early as 1696. Its oldest recipe is listed in a 300-year-old cookbook!

Evenly pour 1.5 - 2 ounces of your favorite bourbon, rum, brandy, or cognac, over the fruitcake.

How do you revive a dry fruitcake? ›

Is Fruit Cake a Healthy Snack? Even though fruit cake is full of raisins and fruits, this is not at all a “healthy” snack. Like any dessert, this cake is full of calories not “nu*trition”.

If you refer to someone as a fruitcake, you mean that they are crazy or that their behavior is very strange. [informal, disapproval]

With overbaking, the outcome causes the cake to be dry and hard and have a flat or bitter taste. In addition, other people don't like fruitcakes due to the unnaturally colored fruit that is sometimes used in mass-produced fruitcakes.

When commercial mass production of mail order fruitcakes resulted in dry bricks being delivered to people's homes as a last-minute Christmas gift. When Johnny Carson made his infamous joke on "The Tonight Show"about how there's only one fruitcake in the world and it's passed from family to family.

Like most rich fruit cakes, it benefits from a maturing period and being fed with some extra alcohol, though in the book it is suggested that the keeping time is 6 weeks and generally we suggest if keeping the cake for longer than this then the cake should be frozen as it will keep for a year.

Cakes can be stored in the fridge for up to a week. If you need to store the cake for longer than that, put it in the freezer. Wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap or aluminium foil, and then place it in a freezer-safe bag. Cakes will stay fresh in the freezer for up to two months.

A traditional fruit cake can be preserved for longer than a year however a sponge cake (especially one with fruit and cream) will not hold up as well. "With a sponge cake, we wouldn't recommend freezing for longer than one month.