What is Baked Alaska?
Baked Alaska has three main components: cake, ice cream, and meringue. There is no truly right or wrong way to make a baked Alaska, but this is my favorite version. It’s so good that our youngest daughter, Rose, has started requesting baked Alaska for her birthday cake! The dessert is assembled by placing your ice cream into a large bowl lined with plastic wrap and freezing it until it’s nice and firm to create a dome shape. Then you add a cake or brownie layer and invert the whole thing to unmold it onto a serving plate. A thick layer of billowy marshmallow meringue covers the whole thing in place of frosting, then it gets torched with a kitchen torch just before serving so it is toasty and slightly warm on the outside while the ice cream stays frozen on the inside. Just imagine torching it right at the table before serving to your friends! Who needs birthday candles when you’ve got homemade meringue and a kitchen torch? Then, as if that presentation wasn’t enough, you slice in to the baked Alaska to reveal layers of different flavored ice cream and brownie or cake. Baked Alaska can’t help showing off, but you can’t help but love it. The contrast of the warm, toasted meringue with the cold ice cream and cake is really unique and just amazing. If you love ice cream desserts, you might also like our Easy Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie, a Tin Roof Sundae, or our Homemade Fried Ice Cream.
What You’ll Need
Scroll down to the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Ice Cream – Choose two complimentary flavors of ice cream for your baked Alaska. You might also want to think about the color of each flavor and select ones that will give clear and distinct lines to show off the design inside the baked Alaska once you slice it. For the two versions in this post, I used cherry & pistachio and fudge brownie & mint chip. Cake or Brownie Layer – You can use one 8-inch layer of any cake you like. Most any of my homemade cake recipes make two 8-inch layers, so you can either halve the recipe or bake the whole thing and simply wrap one up and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months for something else. I’m including an adapted version of one of my favorite brownie recipes below that I used to make the mint chocolate brownie baked Alaska shown here. Egg Whites – These make up the basis of the meringue topping. Save the yolks for a batch of Easy Homemade Lemon Curd or Vanilla Pastry Cream (aka Creme Patisserie)! Granulated Sugar – Adds just the right amount of sweetness to the egg whites for a delicious marshmallow flavor. Cream of Tartar – This ingredient helps stabilize the meringue topping. Vanilla Extract – Adds flavor to the meringue. You could switch this out for another extract like almond or peppermint, if you prefer.
How to Make Baked Alaska
Best Flavor Combos for Baked Alaska
Let your imagination run wild and choose your favorite ice cream flavors, or use one of the pairings mentioned here based on some of our favorite combinations. In this pistachio and cherry baked Alaska, I molded the pistachio ice cream around the edges of the bowl to create space for the cherry ice cream in the middle for a different look. In the mint and chocolate baked Alaska, I went with the simpler method of flat layers, which was way easier and I think I actually like the look even better.
Vanilla cake with cherry and pistachio ice cream Brownie base with mint chip and fudge brownie ice cream Chocolate cake with strawberry and cookie dough ice cream Spice cake with butter pecan and pumpkin ice cream Funfetti cake with cookies & cream and vanilla ice cream Brownie base with peppermint and vanilla or chocolate ice cream Strawberry cake with rocky road and toasted almond ice cream
How to Store Baked Alaska
Keep any uneaten baked Alaska in the freezer, covered loosely with plastic wrap, for up to 4-5 days. I like to press the plastic wrap against the sliced, exposed portion so the cake doesn’t dry out and the ice cream doesn’t get ice crystals on it.
More Dessert Recipes
Gooey Butter Cake Mississippi Mud Pie Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake Payday Pie Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce
Boston Cream Pie
Best Cheesecake Recipe (No Water Bath!)
How to Make a Checkerboard Cake
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