Glossary · Ice cream & treats
99 Flake
Definition
A 99 Flake is a soft serve cone with a short Cadbury Flake bar pushed into the top. Where the name "99" comes from is genuinely unknown.
The 99 is the classic British van order: a wafer cone of soft serve with a Flake standing up in the swirl. The chocolate bar made for it is shorter than a standard Flake so that it sits neatly in the ice cream. Many people add sauce or sprinkles on top.
Nobody knows for certain why it is called a 99. Popular stories point to an Italian royal guard, an old shop address or the idea of something first class, but none has been proved, and Cadbury itself has said the origin is unclear. It is safest to treat every confident explanation with some suspicion. At events the 99 is the order most guests make without looking at the menu. On our board it appears as the Single with Flake, with the Twin with Flake for anyone who wants two.
Related terms
- FlakeA Flake is Cadbury's crumbly milk chocolate bar made from thin folded layers. A shorter version is the standard topping on a soft serve cone.
- Soft serveSoft serve is ice cream frozen and whipped to order in a machine, then piped straight into a cone or tub. It is softer and lighter than scooped ice cream.
- Wafer coneA wafer cone is the light, pale cone moulded from a thin batter, used for the classic 99. It is airy and mild so the ice cream does the talking.
- Raspberry sauceRaspberry sauce is the bright red syrup squeezed over soft serve. In parts of Britain it is jokingly nicknamed "monkey blood".
- The full glossary54 terms, from soft serve to street trading licences.
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