Family Traditions: The Ice Cream Cake

By Liz Stanley of Say YES! to Hoboken

This is a family birthday tradition that has a funny back story. Growing up my parents were extremely thrifty and also very healthy. We never had sweets around and even bribery candy for good table manners were sugar free suckers. When I was around 10 years old I was invited to a birthday party where they served a Carvel ice cream cake. STOP EVERYTHING. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever tasted! For my next birthday I eagerly requested an ice cream cake. My mother agreed. When my birthday celebration came around she presented to my siblings and me the ice cream cake: a block of ice cream (no-frills brand of course) removed from its cardboard and placed on a plate with big ol’ candle on it.

An ice cream cake!! We were thrilled! It became a birthday tradition.

Parenting is all about managing expectations, right? My mom knew us well enough to know we’d appreciate her budget ice cream cake even if it wasn’t from Carvel. And she was right. From then we had ice cream cakes for nearly every birthday that I can remember growing up. Sometimes they were a little more elaborate decorated with oreos or candy, but more often than not it was simply a block of our favorite flavor of ice cream with a candle on top. Most of my siblings don’t have children yet, but I hope we can all carry on the tradition of the ice cream cake as our families grow.

Liz Stanley writes daily about raising her son and beautiful things at her personal blog Say YES! to Hoboken. I think you should check it out.