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Did you know that September is the month that the ice cream cone was invented? Or that it started out as a flat dessert in one place and was made of paper in another? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What’s the point of a cone without ice cream?

Mmmmm, let’s see, which is your favorite? Chocolate, strawberry, or maybe vanilla? Perhaps, like President Bush, you like Pralines and Cream.

Ice cream, in one form or another, has been a treat since at least the beginning of recorded time. There are records from 62 AD that tell us Emperor Nero sent slaves to the Apennine Mountains to collect snow and ice, which were then flavored with fruit juice, honey and nectar. That’s the first mention in history of a snow cone!

Many cultures enjoyed some version of these frozen delights. Marco Polo brought recipes for flavored ices back to Venice from China and the Persian Empire had already been creating frozen fruit juices for centuries. Sherbet is actually a derivation of a chilled Arabic treat known as charab.

However, it wasn’t until 1660 that Italian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli added cream to the ice and served beautiful, creamy frozen desserts at his café in Paris. His clientele were the most fashionable and exclusive members of French society.

Like many good ideas, ice cream had many inventors. In the early 1800s a former black slave named Sallie Shadd, went into the catering business in Wilmington, Delaware and created a new dessert sensation made from frozen cream, sugar and fruit. Dolly Madison, the wife of President James Madison, traveled to Wilmington to taste it. Mrs. Madison certainly liked what she tasted! She served Sallie Shadd’s ice cream dessert in the White House at the second Presidential Inaugural Ball in 1812. The new dessert created quite a splash in Washington society and caught on everywhere.

And like ice cream, the ice cream cone had several inventors too. Italo Marchiony had come to New York City from Italy in the late 1800s. He was so successful selling lemon ice from his pushcart that he soon had a small fleet of pushcarts. In those days, ices and ice creams were served on a saucer and the buyer would have to stand by the cart, finish the treat and return the saucer. Marchiony developed a cone made of paper that made it possible to walk away with the ice cream and do away with washing dishes. Later he created a light pastry cone and on September 22, 1903, he applied for a U.S. patent! The edible ice cream cone was born!

As we said before, good ideas can have many inventors. In 1904, at the World’s Fair in St Louis, two merchants had their stands next to each other. Mr. Menches had started his career as a trapeze artist and manager of a circus! Mr. Hamwi was a Syrian immigrant from Damascus. Now they were both concessionaires. Charles Menches sold ice cream from his concession while Ernest Hamwi made and sold fresh zalabia, a thin Syrian pastry baked on a flat waffle iron.

One version of the story has it that Charles Menches was quite taken with Estelle Bordeaux, the lovely daughter of a steamboat captain. She appeared at his ice cream stand and there was not a single clean saucer left to serve her! Embarrassed, he desperately cast about for a solution.

Seeing Charles’ distress, Mr. Hamwi grabbed a waffle and molded it into a cone while it was still warm and soft. Charles caught on at once and gratefully accepted the cone. When the pastry cooled and became crisp, Charles filled it with ice cream and presented it to Estelle with a flourish! Ice cream vendors from all over the fair grounds began to purchase Mr. Hamwi’s waffles and called them cornucopias. The ice cream cone was invented for a second time!

Charles Menches started the premium Ice Cream Cone and Candy Company and Ernest Hamwi sold his waffle oven to a Mr. Heckle who went into business making cornucopias. Mr. Hamwi traveled around the country introducing the cones. The rest, as they say, is history.

Good ideas occur in every time period and in every place, sometimes independently and sometimes as the result of people working together. Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli and Sallie Shadd both invented ice cream, an ocean and about 150 years apart. Italo Marchiony created the ice cream cone in New York City while only one year later and about 1000 miles away, Charles Menches and Ernest Hamwi invented the ice cream cone all over again. Aren’t we lucky they were all so clever?!

Learn how to make your own homemade ice cream or ice cream cone cupcake!