Pristine 106-year-old Fruit Cake Uncovered In Antarctica

What’s so special about this particular fruit cake? For starters, it’s 106 years old. It was also among the provisions taken to Antarctica by members of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s historic Terra Nova expedition in 1910.

The cake was still sealed in the tin (what’s left of it, anyway) Huntley & Palmers placed it in when the company baked it more than a century ago. Its paper wrapper was slightly torn, but the cake itself was in nearly pristine condition. According to the Antarctic Heritage Trust, the cake “looked and smelled (almost) edible.” To be fair, the same could be said of most of the store-bought fruitcakes I’ve encountered during the holidays over the years.

The conservators note that fruit cake is “an ideal high-energy food for Antarctic conditions,” adding that it’s “still a favorite item on modern trips to the Ice.”

Its packaging has been de-acidified and what’s left of the tin container has been given a protective coating. Crews are actually refinishing the building site where the fruit cake and numerous other artifacts were recovered. Once they’ve finished their work on the huts (which were built in the late 19th century by Norweigian explorers) the fruitcake will be returned to its rightful home in Cape Adare.