This article is about the cone itself. For the confection that goes into the cone, see Ice cream. Cones, in the form of wafers rolled and baked hard, date back to Ancient Rome and Greece. When exactly they transitioned to being cookie ice cream sandwich for desserts, and ice cream in particular, is not clear.

The earliest certain evidence of ice cream cones come from Mrs A. Her recipe for “Cornet with Cream” said that “the cornets were made with almonds and baked in the oven, not pressed between irons”. Iced Pudding, a la Chesterfield, in Charles Elmé Francatelli’s The Modern Cook, first published in 1846. The illustration is one of the earliest to show something akin to ice cream cones, arranged around the base of the iced dessert. Francatelli described the cones as “gauffres, filled with some of the ice cream”. The Ice Cream Sandwich or Ice Cream Cornucopia trademark was registered with the state of Missouri and introduced at the St. In the United States, edible vessels for ice cream took off at the start of the 1900s.

Molds for edible ice cream cups entered the scene in 1902 and 1903, with two Italian inventors and ice cream merchants. Manchester, patented a novel apparatus resembling a cup-shaped waffle iron, made “for baking biscuit-cups for ice-cream” over a gas range. New York City, patented an improved design with a break-apart bottom so that more unusual cup shapes could be created out of the delicate waffle batter. Lebanese concessionaire named Arnold Fornachou was running an ice cream booth.

When he ran short on paper cups, he noticed he was next to a waffle vendor by the name of Ernest Hamwi, who sold Fornachou some of his waffles. Fornachou rolled the waffles into cones to hold the ice cream. Abe Doumar and the Doumar family of Norfolk, Virginia also claim credit for the ice cream cone. At 16, Doumar began selling paperweights and other items. Ghent in Belgium to Norfolk, Virginia.