Getting the scoop on the history of Sanders Chocolate & Ice Cream Shoppe

This story was originally posted on October 30, 2018. It was updated on November 10, 2023.

You might know Sanders Chocolate & Ice Cream Shoppe for its famous bumpy cake, or maybe for bringing the tradition of “Sweetest Day” to Detroit, but did you know the iconic Detroit candy brand started more than a century ago? Confectioner Fred Sanders Schmidt opened up his family candy store in 1875, after moving from Chicago following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. By the 1960s, his candy store had become a household name in Detroit.

But the Bumpy Cake many have come to know and love may soon be out of stock by the end of the year, Vic Mehren, CEO of Second Nature Brands, the parent company of Sanders, announced in a Facebook post. The iconic chocolate cake was for many years made by the Livonia-based Minnie Marie Bakers, Inc., better known as Awry’s, until the bakery announced it was closing. The company continues to search for a new partner to make Bumpy Cakes with.

“After conversations with more than a dozen bakeries, we have not yet found a new partner who can maintain the high quality and classic taste that our consumers expect and deserve. Unfortunately, this means that Bumpy Cakes will soon be out of stock until we can find a new bakery partner with the capabilities to get us back into production,” Mehren wrote.

From Detroit Public TV’s “Detroit Remember When: Made in the Motor City” documentary, One Detroit Senior Producer Bill Kubota and host Erik Smith learn about the history of the Sanders brand from Brian and Karen Jefferson of Sanders Candy, as well as several Sanders fans including John Rapson, the late Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, WOMC Radio’s Steve Kostan, Charlie Langton from Fox 2/WWJ Radio and others.