After 61 years, couple still eating original wedding cake

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Every year, one Florida couple celebrates their wedding anniversary with a special tradition.   Satellite Beach residents Ann and Ken Fredericks nibble on a piece original cake from their wedding day. 

The couple got married on August 19, 1955, and they've been eating on that same fruitcake for over six decades.  "And we just cut a little piece off of here," Ken demonstrates, before drizzling the sweet treat with some brandy.  "It preserves it really, the brandy.  It preserves it, and it softens it."

Ann's grandmother made the cake for their wedding day -- it was tradition to have dark fruitcake in her family.   "She made the cake, and it had to hang in their cellar in cheesecake bags to age, because it needs to start aging before you ice it."

The couple says they keep the cake wrapped up in a tightly sealed coffee tin that stays in a cupboard above their refrigerator.   Ken and Ann say each year they have a little piece with some champagne.

So what's the secret to more than 6 decades of wedded bliss?

"We still love each other, and we enjoy each other's company," says Ken.  "It's a collaborative venture that lasts if you allow it to," Ann adds.

All that understanding and compromise,  coupled with wedding cake, seems to do the trick for the Fredericks.

"It's important to us, because it says we're still together and glad of it," says Ann.