Sundae, Sundae, Sundae!
Written by: Ashley Vest
Photo by: Edward Boe
Ice cream (vanilla traditionally)
Flavored sauce or syrup such as hot fudge, caramel, butterscotch, and strawberry syrup
Nuts or sprinkles (optional)
Whip Cream (lots of it)
Top off with one maraschino cherry
No matter how you build your sundaes, it’s a tasty treat that can satisfy the sweetest of teeth.
But where did this dessert come from, and what is up with the name?
Well, according to lore, legend, and legit documentation, the sundae came into being because the popular ice cream sodas of the time were prohibited from being served on Sundays. Documents published by the Evanston Illinois Public Library (shout out to my home state of Illinois), show that the drinking of these concoctions was considered too "frilly" to have on Sundays.
Weird concern, Illinois, but okay.
By 1890 Illinois passed the so-called new “blue law,” which stated it was illegal to sell ice cream sodas on Sunday.
To circumvent this law, soda foundations came up with a new confection. They served ice cream with the syrup of the customers' choice and skipped the soda, thereby technically obeying the law. The result was called the Sunday soda. So popular was this new taste sensation that people started ordering it on other days of the week. Some local Christian leaders got huffs and puffs about the dish being naming after the Sabbath, so to shut them up, the spelling was changed to sundae.
Thus a star was born.
Monday, November 11th, is National Sundae Day. I like to think on that day, we are not only celebrating the dessert itself but also the ingenuity of humanity.
A variation on the classic ice cream sundae is the banana split as photographed above.
Ashley Vest is a Chicago-based producer and writer. She works in-house for Edward Boe Photography as a creative producer and art director.