the distinction when I scooped ice cream in a dairy that made its own ice cream and sauces from scratch. A classic hot fudge sundae. Layer in a sundae cup in the order given (or use any old bowl that will support this edifice): *Really good vanilla--the kind that has flecks of vanilla and has eggs in the base--the rich stuff *Large dollops of hot fudge or cold chocolate, applied so it gets down to the bottom of the scooped ice cream (i.e., liberally; smother the ice cream, which is just an excuse to hold the chocolate) *Chopped nuts. Used to be walnuts, now frequently peanuts. (These are optional.) *Whipped cream. If you must, make your own. But if you can get a really good commercial whipped cream, it is an absolute blast to apply it in swirls from a nozzle. (We used to make our own with heavy cream and those little nitrous oxide chargers that sometimes flew off the container. ...That was fun. The health and safety people would probably go bananas today.) Finally, and this takes art to apply: *One maraschino cherry that perches, beautifully centered, on the whipped cream as elegant little rivulets of the pink juice run down the trails of the whipped cream. You may, if you like, put the sprinkling of nuts on the whipped cream just before the cherry. Some people like the speckled effect. But it does get in the way of the rivulets, and if you like nuts, they work