Baked Alaska (Serves 8)

As promised earlier in the week, this is my blog about making a Baked Alaska. Warm, spongy meringue that insulates a core of ice cold ice cream sitting atop a simple, yet delightful, sponge cake base. That’s a Baked Alaska. The thing that makes it so awkward to cook is that, unless you have access to a blowtorch (and the confidence to use it!), then you’ve got to cook the meringue at the right temperature for just the right amount of time so that the meringue is cooked…but the ice cream in the middle stays cold.

After being mentioned briefly in a conversation I decided to embark on making this, despite having a mounting list of other things to make and it turned out quite well. Serving it proved to be a messy affair though. Surprisingly, melting ice cream doesn’t provide the best support for meringue and so the whole thing doesn’t stand up tremendously well. So I apologise in advance for the bad photography (it’s always amateur anyway)!

Difficulty: ****

Pros

Ingredients are easy to get hold of and cheap

Impressive if it works out!

Cons

Very easily messed up…

Ingredients

For the Sponge Cake:

75g Self Raising Flour

75g Sugar

75g Margerine/Butter

1 Beaten Egg

Optional: ½ tblsp Vanilla Essence

For the Meringue

3 Egg Whites

150g Sugar

NOTE: For this recipe the general formula is 50g Sugar for every 1 Egg White

Ice Cream

Optional: Jam

Method

Sponge Cake

1) Soften the margarine in a bowl and then cream it with the sugar.

2) Bit by bit (so it doesn’t curdle) add the egg and the vanilla essence (if you’re using it)

3) Add the flour and mix well

4) Pour the mixture into a greased sandwich tin and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C (Gas Mark 4 or 380°F)

5) Allow to cool

Meringue

NOTE: This recipe is best done with an electric whisk! Your arm will be very tired otherwise.

1) Whisk the egg whites lightly until they’re foam-like

2) While still whisking, add the sugar a little bit at a time and the mixture should thicken and become very white.

3) Continue whisking to work air into the mixture until it forms stiff, white peaks similar to the ones in the picture shown.

Baked Alaska

1) Have an oven pre-heated to 220°C (Gas Mark 7 or 425°F) and have the cake on an oven tray

NOTE: Put tin foil or greaseproof paper down on the tray, otherwise the cake will cook onto the tray, I found this out the hard way.

2) Cover the cake base with jam and then scoop ice cream onto it. Be sure to leave 1 inch all the way around uncovered.

3) Using a palette knife (or spatula, spoon, whatever you prefer) scoop meringue mixture on top of the ice cream and shape it so that it covers absolutely everywhere.

4) Bake for 4 minutes until the meringue is a golden colour.

5) Serve and enjoy!

This recipe may seem very daunting in terms of the steps involved, but once you get going it really is simple to make and is very rewarding if it turns out right. Once again I apologise for not posting this earlier, I’ve been lazy and working (two things that take up a lot of time) though I’m still sticking to two posts a week! Speaking of which, here is a short list of the things that I will be making in the next month or so that you should hopefully enjoy. Unfortunately there’s nothing savoury in this list, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

7^th May – Strawberry Cream Buns for someone’s birthday, these look gorgeous!

15^th May - I’m preparing 24 Butterfly Buns (chocolate and plain) for a charity event that my good friend Eliza is hosting. I’ve made them plenty of times before, so they should turn out fine.

19^th May – As a small thank you to my teachers I’m planning to bake some cupcakes with buttercream and piped icing letters.

After this: Sugar Cookies and Decorating! (two separate posts)

Thanks for reading this, I hope you all have a great bank holiday Monday tomorrow. If you decide to try out this recipe or have any questions then, as usual, post pictures and just ask away!