Let Them Eat Cake

How long will you keep cooked food before you decide it may not be safe to eat? And what if you freeze that food?  I bet you didn't answer, "about 60 years." Why 60 years? That's because there is a married couple in Florida that is still enjoying a tasting tradition from their wedding day. Every anniversary they take a bite from the top layer of their wedding cake that they wrap in Saran wrap and store in a coffee can in their freezer. Yep! They eat their 60 year old wedding cake each year anniversary of their wedding and they live to tell of it.

Ann and Ken Fredericks said that they pour brandy over the dark fruitcake to moisten it and break off a piece. I wonder if they take a few sips of that brandy before eating the cake. In fact, I wonder if they take allot of sips, not just on tasting day but all the time.  Well, they do admit to drinking champagne with their yearly cake tasting. I know fruitcake is supposed to last a long time, but 60 years is odd. Anne says the cake tastes just like it did the day she and Ken were married, but their children are disgusted by the fact they still eat that cake. Yet, Anne she says it's actually quite tasty with the brandy and has never made them sick.

I wonder long frozen food is safe to eat? Most of the recommendations about frozen food, cake or not, claim that after a year or two the freezing process makes the food, not unsafe, but dry ("freezer burn") and unpalatable. Yet, Anne and Ken say that when they pour brandy on top of their cake each year to keep it moist it does stay as fresh as the day in 1955 it was baked. But then most drunks also say they pour a great deal of brandy inside themselves to preserve their body.

The story of the origin of the cake is that when Anne and Ken were married in 1955 Ann's grandmother made the cake. Most marriages never approach 60 years in length. They tend to spoil before the Fredericks' wedding cake spoils. Hmmmm The grandma is dead, and the cake still lives. What does that say about life? I guess it says for some that life really is just a piece of cake.