The discovery of a 106-year-old fruitcake on Antarctica’s Cape Adare may help redeem the delicacy’s much-maligned reputation. The centenarian cake was found by a team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust in the continent’s oldest building, a hut erected in 1899, and is thought to have been left there in 1911 by members of the Northern Party, part of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. The tin holding the Huntley & Palmers fruitcake was somewhat rusty, but the cake itself was in fine shape—likely due to the cold, dry conditions. “It felt and looked like a new fruitcake,” says Lizzie Meek, the trust’s program manager. “It was only if you got quite close to it that you could smell that slightly off smell of butter that’s gone wrong.”
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2024
Shackleton's Last Try
Top 10 Discoveries of 2022 January/February 2023
Ship at the Bottom of the World
Weddell Sea, Antarctica
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2017
Freeze Frame
Off the Grid September/October 2012
Aquincum, Hungary
-
Features January/February 2018
Where the Ice Age Caribou Ranged
Searching for prehistoric hunting grounds in an unlikely place
(Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Creative) -
Letter From Albania January/February 2018
A Road Trip Through Time
As a new pipeline cuts its way through the Balkans, archaeologists in Albania are grabbing every opportunity to expose the country’s history—from the Neolithic to the present
(TAP/G. Shkullaku) -
Artifacts January/February 2018
Roman Dog Statue
(Eve Andreski/Courtesy Gloucester County Council) -
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2018
The Secrets of Sabotage
(Bjørn Harry Schønhaug)