In August, a fruitcake was unearthed in Antarctica, apparently, it was abandoned by the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1911 (who starved to death on a later expedition). Apart from what one observer described as a faintly “rancid butter” smell, it was deemed “almost edible” after all that time.Still, it is not the oldest fruitcake on record: Another, baked around 1878 by Fidelia Bates in a woodstove in Berkley, Ohio, USA has been passed down through generations. In 2003, Jay Leno took a bite of it during “The Tonight Show,” pondered, and said, “It definitely needs more time.”
