Arizona woman keeps 85-year-old cookie as family heirloom

Feb. 21 (UPI) -- An Arizona woman is holding on to an unusual family heirloom -- an 85-year-old cookie given as a Valentine to her mother.

Scottsdale resident Penny Rickhoff said her family has been holding on to the heart-shaped cookie since the 1930s, when it was given to her mother by her first love.

"People back then, shoot, didn't have a lot of money," Rickhoff told KPHO/KTVK. "So you bake a cookie, what else can you do?"

She said the cookie, which bears the name of her mother's boyfriend, Bus, stopped being appetizing long ago.

"It's hard as a rock," Rickhoff said.

"She wanted to keep it as a memento," Rickhoff said of her mother.

She said she plans to hold on to the cookie for as long as it holds together.

"It's a lucky cookie, as I say," Rickhoff said.

The cookie's vintage is impressive, but its far from the oldest surviving dessert food -- a Minnesota man held a party in 2011 to celebrate the 100th "birthday" of a Christmas cake an antique-dealing friend had given him after receiving it from the attorney handing an estate sale. The cake was baked by Rose Garden Florist in Detroit in December of 1911.