Baked Alaska was a firm favourite of 80s dinner parties, a show–stopping dessert consisting of sponge cake, ice cream, and an Italian meringue topping.
The dessert is frozen before being browned off in the oven, hence it's other name 'omelette surprise' - since a warm dessert is not expected to be filled with frozen ice cream.
The great thing about this recipe is that you can use your favourite ice cream, be it Ben & Jerrys, Häagen-Dazs or classic Cornish ice cream, and really make it your own.
The trickiest bit with this recipe is the Italian meringue. If you haven't made it before, using a cooking thermometer is a great way of making it a lot easier for yourself, so you can keep an eye on the temperature of the sugar and know exactly when your meringue is ready.
Top tip
If you'd rather make six smaller desserts you can follow the same recipe - simply use a cookie cutter to divide the sponge into six equal smaller cakes, and use one scoop of ice cream on each, then pipe on the meringue to cover. You can then freeze them and pop them out as and when you fancy a sweet treat!
Ingredients: Baked Alaska
For the sponge:
75g (3oz) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
30g (1oz) golden syrup
Tin of dulce de leche
2 eggs
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
For the Italian meringue:
225g (8oz) caster sugar
150ml (5floz) water
90g (4oz) egg whites
Ice cream for the centre, vanilla or in a flavour of your choice.
Method: Baked Alaska
For the sponge:
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°FGas Mark 4. Lightly grease a 30cm lipped baking tray and cover with baking paper.
- Put the softened butter, golden syrup and dulce de leche in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer or wooden spoon, cream together for around five minutes.
- Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk.
- Add the eggs into the butter and continue to mix for another two minutes or until completely smooth.
- Sift in the flour and mix for one more minute.
- Spoon your sponge mix onto the prepared baking tray and spread out until it is 1cm thick.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
- Once the sponge is cool, place a 20cm round cake tin on top of it and cut around to form the base of the Baked Alaska.
For the Italian meringue:
- Put the sugar into a small saucepan over a low heat and slowly add the water. Make sure no sugar has come up the sides of the pan as this will make the sugar crystalize.
- Put the egg whites into a mixing bowl and, using an electric hand mixer, whisk on a slow speed.
- Once the sugar has reached 116°C, increase the speed of whisking to create soft peaks in your egg whites.
- Once the sugar has reached 121°C, pour it slowly on to the egg whites while still whisking on a high speed.
- Continue to whisk until the meringue has cooled to room temperature, then put in a piping bag with a plain 10mm nozzle.
- Place the large sponge disk on baking paper and place six balls of ice cream evenly on the top of the sponge, leaving a 2cm border around the edge.
- Pipe the meringue all the way around to completely cover the ice cream and place in the freezer until you are ready to cook and serve.
- When ready to cook, preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Place the baking sheet on the bottom shelf for 3 minutes, or until the meringue is nice and browned. Slice carefully and serve.
Meringue masterclass
Do you know the difference between French, Swiss and Italian meringue? In the below video CupcakeJemma shares her secrets to making great meringues, plus what classic mistakes to avoid.
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