The history of Ice Cream Cake

Timeline

1. 2014Gelato is bred by reversing Sunset Sherbert to GSC; after a pheno-hunt, numbered selections including Gelato 33 go into production, and Mr. Sherbinski gives #33 away.⁵
2. 2015Gelato 33 goes into wide production.⁵
3. 2018Seed Junky’s Triangle Mints #23, also known as Wedding Cake, wins Best Hybrid at the SoCal Medical Cannabis Cup.^5,6,7
4. 2018Mad Scientist Genetics’ Ice Cream Cake, a different cross (Cheesecake × Dream Cookie), wins first place for indica at the IC 420 Growers Cup; SeedFinder also credits it with fourth place in licensed mixed-light flower at that year’s Emerald Cup.^8,9,10
5. Dec 2018The earliest state lab test of Ice Cream Cake flower in our dataset.¹¹
6. Sep 2019High Times calls Seed Junky’s Wedding Cake × Gelato #33 cross one of the latest dessert strains to gain hype status, and notes that several strains share the name.¹²
7. Dec 2019An Ice Cream Cake entered by Calyx Peak’s Josh D brand wins first place for licensed mixed-light flower at the 16th Emerald Cup.¹³
8. Jan 2021Leafly lists it among eight cultivars trending up for 2021 and warns that popularity has led to rampant growing and eroded quality control.¹
9. Apr 2021Local Cannabis Company’s Ice Cream Cake takes first place in mixed-light flower at the 17th Emerald Cup.^14,15
10. Oct 2021Leafly reports it was the third most searched strain on its US site that year.¹⁶
11. 2022–2023First on Leafly’s list of the best-selling strains of 2022, and on the list again for 2023.^4,17
12. 2023–2024Headset rankings published by Leaf Nation place it third in Oregon in March 2023 and, a year later, first in Missouri and in the top seven in Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Washington and Michigan.^18,19
13. 2025The top strain in Oregon in Leafly’s 2025 dispensary orders.²⁰
14. Aug 2026As Seed Junky reworks Wedding Cake into Cake Straws, a podcast host quoted by Leaf Nation calls Ice Cream Cake “underwhelming compared to things out now”.³

Why it spread

It joined the two dessert strains of the moment. Gelato was Leafly’s first Strain of the Year, in 2018, and Wedding Cake its second, and Leafly’s editors call Ice Cream Cake part of the Gelato dynasty and a major name in the Seed Junky crowd.^2,21 Leaf Nation describes the whole family as a “huge wave of Cake” that washed across the country in the late 2010s.³

Growers took to it as much as buyers. Leafly’s 2021 harvest report said farmers grew “literal tons” of it and its kin, credited its bag appeal, nose appeal and versatility, and quoted Daniel Hendricks of the HendRx Farm nursery: “Ice Cream Cake is here to stay.”¹⁶

Popularity had a cost. Leafly’s 2021 trend report said wide availability had led to rampant growing that eroded quality control, and that it takes a master grower to bring out its best; by 2026 a podcast host quoted by Leaf Nation found it underwhelming next to newer strains.^1,3

The disputed parts of the story

• Which Ice Cream Cake: Seed Junky’s Wedding Cake × Gelato #33 is the version on most menus, but Mad Scientist Genetics sells a Cheesecake × Dream Cookie cross under the same name (see genetics).^8,9,12
• Awards: the 2018 IC 420 Growers Cup win and the 2018 Emerald Cup placing are credited to Mad Scientist’s version. Leafly credits the 2019 and 2021 Emerald Cup wins to Seed Junky’s cross; the results name the growers’ entries, Calyx Peak’s Josh D brand in 2019 and Local Cannabis Company in 2021.^4,8,9,13,14
• Wedding Cake’s parents: its breeder says Triangle Kush × Animal Mints, but Leafly notes it was once thought to be a cross of GSC and Cherry Pie, and Leafly’s own family tree shows Animal Mints × Triangle Mints.^2,6
• Date: no source we opened gives the year Seed Junky released Ice Cream Cake; the earliest dated records are the 2018 awards for Mad Scientist’s version and state lab tests from Dec 2018.^9,11