We Got The Inside Scoop On Carvel's Fudgie The Whale Cake

No matter which part of the country you grew up in, there are just some foods that scream "summer" in the good old U.S.A. Sticky summer nights go best with treats like gooey s'mores, patriotic-colored popsicles, and, of course, a perfect swirl of soft serve ice cream. If you grew up in the Northeast, it's likely that your memories of the latter are deeply intertwined with the name Carvel. The now nationally recognized scoop shop has been dishing out cups and cones of soft serve for nearly a century — in fact, Carvel is celebrating its 90th birthday in 2024.

So, what does it take to stick around for 90 years? In the case of Carvel, it's keeping things simple and iconic. The brand's most popular offerings have been mainstays of its menu for decades, including its classic vanilla soft serve (made with the same butterfat content as hard ice cream, unlike most soft serve), flying saucer ice cream sandwiches, and the eternally grinning Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake.

We got the chance to visit the Carvel test kitchen in Atlanta to get the inside scoop on Fudgie's origin story and his rise to fame, and we even got to help whip up a Fudgie cake ourselves. Ready to dive in? Here's everything you need to know about Fudgie the Whale.

Like many of Carvel's confections, Fudgie the Whale was born from the ever-churning imagination of the company's founder, Tom Carvel. Sick of making flowery ice cream cakes for Mother's Day, the brand patriarch wanted to come up with a nautical-themed treat for dads, complete with its own personality. The only requirement? It needed to be fudgy.

After a few rounds of trial and error, Fudgie the Whale was born just in time for Father's Day 1977. Inscribed with the now-famous words "to a whale of a dad," the cake became an instant hit from day one. Today, Carvel franchises across the country sell a whopping 100,000 Fudgie the Whale cakes annually (sales still reliably spike around Father's Day), cementing Fudgie as a dessert icon.

Unlike Carvel's other confections, Fudgie the Whale has also become something of a spokesperson, or spokeswhale, if you will. According to Carvel's vice president of marketing Marissa Sharpless, "Fudgie has taken on a core personality as a brand. He's the only character cake that comes to life as a mascot, and people just love him." But don't take her word for it. The mischievous whale is a mainstay on Carvel's social media channels, where he even posts goofy selfies and partakes in social media trends.

Crafting the perfect Fudgie the Whale cake is all about the measurements. Fudgie may be simple, but that doesn't mean he's an easy confection to crack. When asked about the first time he made a Fudgie the Whale cake, Carvel executive chef Dave Fenner summed up the experience in just one word: "Hard!"

Each element needs to be perfect in order to achieve Fudgie the Whale's signature look. The first essential is the mold. Carvel's proprietary plastic molds serve as the template for Fudgie's shape and need to be able to withstand the sub-zero temperatures of an industrial freezer. The Fudgie the Whale mold is filled with exactly 14 ounces of vanilla soft serve and smoothed into a nice, neat layer. Once the vanilla soft serve is as smooth as freshly packed snow, a hearty ½-pound layer of chocolate crunchies is added to the mix, carefully centered to avoid lumpy edges. A layer of chocolate soft serve comes next (also 14 ounces' worth), spread evenly over the top of the crunchies.

The whole cake heads to the freezer to harden before decorating can begin. An uber-thin layer of chocolate fudge douses the entire cake, and a layer of chocolate crunchies is added to the sides for some textural interest. Finally, a semi-frozen icing is piped around Fudgie's border to give him definition, while an eyebrow, blue pupil, and smile are added for a final flourish.

If Fudgie the Whale is so simple to make, what makes him so iconic? It turns out, the secret is in his simplicity. "There haven't been too many changes to Fudgie," notes Marissa Sharpless, and that's just the way Carvel likes it. In helping to make a Fudgie cake, we uncovered three key elements that set him apart from other ice cream cakes.

Firstly, Fudgie the Whale is made almost entirely of soft serve. There's no sad, dried-out cake layer that turns rock hard after sitting in the freezer. And since he's made from soft serve, the frozen treat is ready to eat much more quickly than if he were made of harder ice cream. The second element is the soft serve itself. While most soft serve products contain between 3 and 6% butterfat, Carvel uses more than 10% butterfat in its recipe, resulting in a richer, thicker dessert and more luscious ice cream cake experience.

Between those layers of butterfat-rich soft serve is the third key element in Fudgie the Whale: those signature chocolate crunchies. This unique addition offers a textural contrast to the smooth soft serve. Thanks to some intense R&D on behalf of the Carvel test kitchen, these chocolaty bites stay crunchy even while placed between layers of soft serve. Fudgie may be made up of just a handful of elements, but each of those elements has been crafted to create a prime piece of nostalgia.

Craving your own Fudgie the Whale cake? You'll want to make a beeline for your local Carvel scoop shop. Carvel insists that every Fudgie ice cream cake is made by hand, meaning that you won't find the loveable leviathan on grocery store shelves.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Franchisees tend to have been with Carvel for a long time, often with decades or even generations of experience crafting Fudgie the Whale cakes. According to chef Dave Fenner, "These franchisees are incredible. They can churn out around 30 Fudgie the Whales in an hour."

If you plan to pick up a Fudgie the Whale for your next birthday or anniversary celebration, just be sure to call ahead. While most of Carvel's franchise locations will typically have a few extra Fudgie the Whale cakes on hand, they'll also make you one fresh to order. You can even customize the soft serve flavors in your whale cake if you prefer, though both the Carvel team and the brand's loyal fans are partial to the classic chocolate-vanilla combo. And at roughly $26 to $31 before tax (depending on the size), a handmade Fudgie cake is a whale of a deal, too.

After 40-plus years, Fudgie has garnered quite a following. Celebrities like William Shatner and Jimmy Fallon have shared their affection for the whimsical whale on social media, while he's served as the punchline for late-night talk show hosts David Letterman and Steven Colbert. Kelly Ripa even celebrated her 53rd birthday with a Fudgie the Whale cake on live TV.

But Fudgie doesn't need celebrity endorsement to steal the show. The chocolaty confection has enjoyed countless cameos in classic TV shows like "The Simpsons," in which Homer gifts Marge a Fudgie the Whale cake with the inscription "To A Whale of a Wife," and "The Office," when Andy demands a Fudgie the Whale cake for his birthday. Fudgie also played a prominent, if graphic, role in Season 4, Episode 4, of "The Boys." According to Melissa Sharpless, the cameo was so noteworthy that it caused a major spike in search traffic for Fudgie, as well as an impressive increase in sales, but more importantly, it introduced the cake to a whole new generation of fans.

There's little doubt that Fudgie the Whale is the most iconic of Carvel's character cake creations, but he's not the only one. Alongside the loveable whale, you'll find a second signature sweet dubbed "Cookie Puss." With his large chocolate chip cookie eyes and bulbous ice cream cone nose, he's been described as a caricature of brand founder Tom Carvel, who coincidentally also created the cake's distinctive look. The official party line is that Cookie Puss is an alien from Planet Birthday. While he's missing Fudgie's signature layer of hot fudge, Cookie Puss is also made from equal parts chocolate and vanilla soft serve separated by a layer of chocolate crunchies.

Around Christmastime, you might notice a familiar face lining Carvel's grab-and-go freezer shelves. The brand's popular Santa ice cream cake is built from the same mold as Fudgie the Whale, just simply turned on its side to transform the whale tail into a big red hat. While fan-favorite characters are a hallmark of Carvel's cake offerings, there is a new friend joining its ranks later this year. In September 2024, the company will introduce a brand-new character cake picked by fan vote. Only time will tell if the new addition will reach Fudgie's level of fame.