The delicacy known as “Baked Alaska” consists of cake and ice cream and is topped with a caramelized meringue. Instead of baking the meringue, you can caramelize it with a kitchen blowtorch. To create a signature meal, experiment with the ice cream flavor; cherry ice cream is my favorite!
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 hrs |
| Total Time: | 10 hrs 35 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 1 8-inch baked alaska |
Ingredients
- 2 quarts vanilla ice cream, softened, or as needed
- 8 large egg whites
- ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 8-inch round prepared white cake layer
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round mixing bowl with plastic wrap. Pack softened ice cream into the prepared bowl, then flatten the top and cover with more plastic wrap. Freeze until firm, 8 hours to overnight.
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- Beat egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form.
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- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place cake in the center. Remove ice cream from the freezer, discard plastic wrap, and turn ice cream out on top of cake.
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- Quickly spread meringue over ice cream and cake, swirling in decorative patterns if desired. Freeze for 2 hours.
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- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
- Bake cake on the lowest oven shelf until meringue is light brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
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- Slice and enjoy!
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Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 330 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 53 g |
| Cholesterol | 41 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 315 mg |
| Sugars | 44 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
My whole family went crazy, First I used a flambe torch on the meringue which became a side show, Then I used Brqandy to flambe. My little grandson was afraid I was going to set the icream on fire. The males in the family went for seconds. I will be making this again.
Incredible dessert! I am reviewing the method because I changed the flavors. I made a chocolate cake and used raspberry chocolate chip ice cream and mint chip ice cream. It was a incredible and well worth the trouble (and actually I think it was very easy, just had several steps). I only used 4 egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar for the meringue. At 8 minutes in the oven the meringue did have a slight “avalanche”, so maybe thicker meringue would have avoided that. I will definitely make again and would encourage anyone to try it and experiment with the flavors. Very special.
Really fun and easy recipe. It was very impressive upon first presentation, but the whole cake flopped after I cut the first 4 pieces. It feeds about 6 people safely. I would recommend not making it a gigantic mountain because it’s very hard to serve & that also contributed to the flop. It’s a fun recipe for kids – my cooking Davy 11 year old made pretty much the whole thing. However, it’s not as gourmet as it sounds as it sits on a boxed cake mix. My kids really loved it!
Everyone loved this, I will make it again, the only flaw was The cake needed to be made according to box instructions As there was not enough ingredients to make it moist if I had made it as is. I think it would’ve been a disaster. Realizing I can use any cake mix and any ice cream makes it very versatile and I am excited to make this cake again.
I made this for my husband’s birthday cake and he loved it! My kids are now asking me to make this every year for their birthdays.
My husband always asks me to make Baked Alaska as a joke, so for Father’s Day I decided to make it! It was delicious as is, but I may use different flavored ice creams if I make it again.
yes I will make it again.It was so good
Loved this! However for the base I used a Black Magic cake recipe. The flavors completely complimented each other perfectly.
I was pretty pleased with the first attempt at Baked Alaska. I made it for a friend’s memory of his mom making it for him. He thought it was great!
DOES NOT WORK It took 5 hours to make and when I put it in the oven, FOR THE CORRECT TIME AND TEMP, it EXPLODED in the oven. The ice cream went EVERYWHERE.
I didn’t quite seal the meringue correctly. so I had some leaking ice cream. other than that I thought it turned out great.
I made our cake from scratch, and used a devils food recipe. The merengue instructions in this recipe needed to be tweaked a little. I added 1/2 tsp vanilla to the ingredients. I also ended up with twice as much merengue as I needed. Overall, the instructions were good and my first ever Baked Alaska was a hit!
Great recipe and fun to make!!!
Aaaaaaamazing! I made a brownie base & my 9 yr old said this is a must for her every birthday cake:)
Blue lives matter!
It was amazing my 10 year old daughter made it.
There is a video that goes with this recipe. It states to make the cake according to box directions, with the exception of only using one egg. That is what the egg in the ingredient list is used for. Good Luck!
Turned out amazing. I am not a baker but everything feel into place perfectly. Everyone was so impressed.
The first time I made this we played it safe and broiled it. It was very good. The second time we baked it, but the ice cream melted a bit. The third time I put a layer of meringue between the cake and the ice cream, that way the ice cream wouldn’t melt. I would recommend either only broiling it for a couple minutes or baking it with meringue in between. Great Recipe.
I made this for dessert for Christmas dinner and it was a success. I used a white cake mix and a chocolate / vanilla combo ice cream. The only thing I will do different next time is to get a more flavorful ice cream; possibly mint chip. Unfortunately for me the dessert did not get finished that night and I had to suffer through eating the rest of it myself over the next several days!
I made this today. The only problem I had was the cake instructions. So I used just one egg, 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup oil and the 1/2 tsp of vanilla (since I didn’t have any almond extract) It was absolutely delicious. We couldn’t believe how big it was!! wow!! The meringue tasted like marshmallows..Thank you for a great recipe!!