Ice Cream Cone
The ice cream cone is loved by children and adults alike. An ice cream cone gives ice cream a great, extra dimension with its texture and flavor. What's more you don't have to use a dish and spoon - an ice cream cone means you can walk around eating your favorite ice cream! Some people actually use a spoon as well when they have their ice cream in a cone. This is particularly popular in France where people of all ages seem to enjoy holding their ice cream cone in one hand and a small plastic spoon in the other. The ice cream parlors there all have the little spoons ready on the counter to hand over when you buy your cone.
Once the ice cream is in the cone there are toppings to choose from - chocolate or strawberry sauce, colored sprinkles, chopped nuts, a chocolate flake ... the list goes on!
Cone sizes - there are quite a few different sizes usually from 1 scoop through to 3 or even 4 scoop cones. You can also get cones in different textures; some are softer or harder than others then there are waffle cones and some are even pre-dipped in chocolate! Pictured left: a chocolate dipped waffle cone with 1 scoop of fresh strawberry ice cream
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Pictured right:
waffle cone with a single scoop of
vanilla ice cream dipped in
colored sprinkles.
The invention of the ice cream cone goes back to the turn of the last century when Italo Marchiony (based in New York) had a US patent issued in December 1903 for what he described as: "like a waffle iron ... producing several small pastry cups with sloping sides". At the St. Louis Fair in 1904, however, there was a separate announcement of the 'invention' of the ice cream cone - it's alleged that E. E. Hamwi from Damascus had a waffle booth next door to an ice cream seller and rolled his waffles into cone shapes for him to sell more ice cream.
The true origin of the ice cream cone is the subject of much debate in fact. I read up on it and then wrote a blog post about it. If you're interested you can see it here.
Ice cream cones come in all shapes and size but the biggest of all are the display cones that you see outside parlors. Check out my page of big ice cream cones too - I always enjoy discovering these and taking pictures of them. Great fun!