A 100-Year-Old Fruitcake Was Found ‘Perfectly Preserved’ in Antarctica

The Antarctic Heritage Trust has recovered a 100-year-old fruit cake on Cape Adare in Antarctica, where famed explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s team was likely based for the Terra Nova expedition.

Conservators for the trust said the tin was rusted, but the cake (made by British biscuit company Huntley & Palmers) still looked and smelled edible, Lizzie Meek, the manager of the program’s artefacts, said in a statement. It’s been documented that Scott liked this particular brand of cake.

“Finding such a perfectly preserved fruitcake in amongst the last handful of unidentified and severely corroded tins was quite a surprise,” Meek said. “It’s an ideal high-energy food for Antarctic conditions, and is still a favorite item on modern trips to the ice.”

Since May 2016, the team from the Trust has conserved over 1500 artefacts from Cape Adare. Conservators are now planning to conserve the huts that were built in 1899 by Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink and used by Captain Scott in 1911. The artefacts be returned to the huts once they are restored to comply with the site’s status as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA).