A Sundae Anniversary: Remembering Ice Cream History

Summer may be winding down but that’s no reason to stop eating or learning about ice cream. The sweet treat has a past as rich and varied as many of our favorite flavors. Here’s something you may not know: This year is the 25th anniversary of a very cool piece of ice cream history.

According to IceCream.com, On July 24th, 1988, the largest ice cream sundae in history was created in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was much too large to fit through a takeout window. This sundae weighed in at more than 24 tons (almost 55-thousand pounds). Two 45-foot tractor-trailer trucks were filled with 350-lb slabs of ice cream. 63 flavors of ice cream were used. Another huge truck was filled with 45-gallon drums of toppings in flavors like chocolate, fudge, caramel, pineapple, strawberries and butterscotch. Forklifts were used to toss the ice cream and all of those toppings in an empty pool at a mall in downtown Edmonton. It was topped off with whipped cream, crushed peanuts and maraschino cherries. The huge dessert was protected by a massive sneeze guard.

The giant Sundae project was all planned and organized by volunteers in hopes of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records.
It took months of planning and the super-sized sundae was built for about $7,000. It was organized by the manager of a local ice cream distributor who enlisted family and friends to help create dessert history.

So what happened to all that ice cream? It’s hard to fit a 24-ton sundae into a freezer. Nearly half of the sundae (around 5,000 portions) was sold to people in attendance with all proceeds going to charity. The rest was cleaned up over an eight-hour period and involved steam wands and a suction truck. Quite a bit of effort but well worth it to create ice cream history.

There’s a little trivia to share with friends the next time you stop off at Praline’s for your favorite cup or cone.