In the United States, one of the most familiar ice cream desserts is the ice cream sundae. A typical sundae consists of a dish of ice cream topped with sauce or syrup (often chocolate, caramel, butterscotch, or strawberry-flavored), chopped peanuts, whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry.

Various American localities claim the invention of ice cream topped with syrup. Thomas Jefferson enjoyed maple syrup on a dish of vanilla ice cream, so the invention of the sundae, if not the name, will have to be in the late 18th or early 19th century.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin of the term sundae is obscure. The newspaperman H. L. Mencken invented a story that credited the competition of a pair of soda fountain owners in the Wisconsin towns of Two Rivers and Manitowoc, whose rivalry purportedly gave birth to the ice cream sundae. Mencken later allowed that his tale was something of a hoax. Mencken's take: the sundae came into being in 1881 when Ed Berners of Two Rivers decided to make a special dish to sell in his store. Berners charged five cents and only served the dessert on Sundays, hence the name. However, after certain Christian customers complained about using the name of the Lord's Day to advertise ice-cream, he changed the spelling to Sundae. It is also reported that the first ice cream sundae may have originated in Plainfield, Illinois, or that it was invented to circumvent "blue laws" of Evanston, Illinois that banned the dispensing of soda water on the Lord's Day.

Of the many stories around the invention of the sundae, one common theme is the suspected sinfulness of the Ice Cream Soda, which certainly was considered unhealthy and subversive by religious conservatives at the time, and the resulting need to produce an equivalent of that overwhelmingly teen-popular treat for consumption on Sunday.

Hot fudge sundae

The classic hot fudge sundae is generally a creation of vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate sauce (hence the "hot fudge") whipped cream, nuts, and a single bright red maraschino cherry on top. However, it is known equally well for being a flexible food, the end result of which generally reflects one's character. A hot fudge sundae can be made with any flavor of ice cream; though, as a chocolate sauce is generally favored, non-chocolate ice cream flavors are preferred. Likewise, any ice cream topping works well on the hot-fudge sundae, and even non-chocolate flavored syrups are sometimes used, or even a combination! The popular combination of vanilla ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauces, and toasted pecans is known as a turtle sundae. In New England, it is not uncommon to see Marshmallow Fluff used in place of whipped cream. A variation of the hot fudge sundae is the banana split, which generally has two extra scoops of ice creams of different flavors, laying over a split banana. In many instances, a hot fudge sundae is thought to be synonymous with plain, simple sundae.

See also: banana split

External links

• Geek Trivia: Sweetness and lies: H.L. Mencken's "sundae" hoax