Recipe Roundup | Baked Alaska

Baked Alaskas are a little intimidating. This challenge garnered quite a few comments from those who loved the idea but were too nervous to give it a try. The response, from those of us who gave it a go, is that Baked Alaskas are not as complicated as they seem nor as prone to failure as we worried they’d be. The effort is worth the reward of these magical hot cold desserts.

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Hannah from Corner Cottage Bakery ws the bravest of all of us, I think. Testing her theory of which foods make sense on sticks (in the current cake pops, pie pops style) she created crazy fabulous Coconut Baked Alaska Pops. She added coconut to a Genoise sponge recipe, made a creamy coconut ice cream, sandwiched the two together around a lollipop stick and dipped to coat in a thick layer of Italian meringue. A blow torch finished things off. I’m not usually a pops kind of person, but I think this idea is wonderful!

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Suffering from a nasty cold that wouldn’t shift and several weeks of poor sleep, I came up with a Cheat’s Chocolate Cherry Baked Alaska as a way of joining in without making cake or ice cream. I combined shop-bought dense chocolate loaf cake, Morello cherry jam and Belgian chocolate ice cream, smothered them in a regular meringue mix and baked in the oven for a few minutes. To my delight, the meringue browned up and the ice cream stayed frozen inside. Result!

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Back to proper home-made efforts with Julia from Food Blog London’s vibrant Raspberry Almond Baked Alaska. For her base, she made a raspberry almond cake, which she topped with home made raspberry sorbet. Once covered with meringue, she baked in a hot oven. Julia mentioned that her sorbet leaked in a few places, and soaked into the sponge a little and we are wondering whether that was down to sorbet melting faster than ice cream, lack of a layer of jam between cake and sorbet or the need for a thicker insulating layer of meringue? Feedback welcome!

jennie

I think it’s safe to say that most of us who took part this month had never before made a Baked Alaska. But Jennie from Things I Eat had never even eaten one, so her Lemony Baked Alaska was a double first! She used madeira cake for her base, made a condensed milk and yoghurt ice cream with lemon curd swirled through, added more lemon curd between cake and ice cream and topped with Italian meringue. I think it’s safe to say she really enjoyed the sensation of a dessert that was both hot and cold at the same time!

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Huge thanks to all who participated. I hope you enjoyed your Baked Alaskas!

 

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