Yall do know there are really only about a dozen of those things in the entire universe don't ya? They should be the endangered food species list by now. (Or the eradication list like smallpox) Every year here is West Texas, there is a huge increase in the #s of buzzard deaths, and it has supposedly been traced back to people throwing those dang cakes from their cars on the way home from Christmas with their families--where they recieved them as a gift. Only thing I know of that can cause a buzzard to puke itself to death.
Someone had one on Jay Leno once that was 75? yrs old and it had been passed around to everyone in the extended family---several times-and it is now fossilized I believe.
edit. Ooops-I was wrong. Carbon dating puts it much older than the 75 yrs I 1st reported.
Leno to taste 'fossilized' fruitcake
TECUMSEH, Michigan (AP) --A fruitcake that is an estimated 125 years old -- an artifact of holiday cheer -- is expected to make a tasty debut of sorts when it's introduced on national TV.
Morgan Ford, 83, of Tecumseh, is taking his great-grandmother Fidelia Bates' fruitcake to Burbank, California, to share a piece with Jay Leno on Tuesday's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
The cake rests in a glass bowl, covered by a glass top. A large raisin and what might be a clove are visible among the brown mass -- Ford says it's fossilized -- that emits a pleasant odor of spices.
Its baker died in Berkey, Ohio, in 1879 and the cake remained untouched for 85 years.
Not much is known about the origin of the cake; even the recipe is lost.
"I don't think my dad knew anything more about it than I do now," Ford said.
Ford intends to pass along the fruitcake to his son, James Ford, of Tecumseh.
"I guess I don't have anything else that's a family heirloom," James Ford said. "It's history. I think my dad gets a little more fun out of it than I do."
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 12-10-2005).]
I know JazzMan wants some as well, and that makes him allright in my book. 
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Brad
