For 55 years, Rochelle Marr’s wedding cake sat at the bottom of her freezer.
The intention had been to eat it on her 50th wedding anniversary, but she forgot all about the milestone.
That is, until she and her son decided to do a deep clean in January and came across the fruitcake along with a note: “Do not open until 2018.”
That year marked the 50th anniversary of her marriage to Brian Marr, a long-time doctor in the Salmon Arm, B.C., area, before he died in June 2023.
“It’s been moved from different freezers along the way,” Marr said from her home in Salmon Arm, 70 kilometres east of Kamloops.
Rochelle Marr of Salmon Arm, B.C., saved a tier of her 1968 wedding cake in her freezer — then forgot about it for 55 years. Having recently uncovered it, Marr threw a family gathering to give it a taste test.
The fruitcake was made by the mother of one of her bridesmaids for the 1968 wedding celebration.
There is a long-standing tradition of saving a section of a wedding cake to eat at a future milestone, though Marr admits it had slipped her mind.
The discovery, shared online by her son Travis, went viral — getting mentioned by American talk show host Kelly Ripa and being picked up by People magazine.
Everyone had one question: How does the cake taste?
‘It’s fruitcake, it never gets old’
The answer to that question came at a family gathering held April 19 with Marr’s extended family, including children and grandchildren, some of which travelled from Squamish, B.C., and Toronto.
To prepare, she re-soaked the cake in brandy and made a fresh coat of icing.
Son Travis Marr filmed the gathering, including the moment everyone was brave enough to take a bite.
Rochelle Marr of Salmon Arm, B.C., saved a tier of her 1968 wedding cake in her freezer — then forgot about it for 55 years. Having recently uncovered it, she says it smells great, and she’s planning a family gathering to give it a taste test.
“Delicious,” came the first review, from a brother who was in the original wedding party.
“Sweet,” says another. “It’s good, it’s fruitcake, it never gets old.”
Travis said the cake “didn’t taste different from any fruitcake we’ve ever had.”
Having everyone together eating the same cake enjoyed by his parents at their wedding was, “something else,” he said.
And, apparently, there’s more to come: “We thought we had put a dent in it but later mom pulled out a container of more,” he laughed.