Baked Alaska

As I mentioned in my last post, we had a family get together at my Uncle Stephen's house on Saturday.  The original intention for the gathering was to have a belated birthday celebration for my grandfather, whose birthday was April 17th.  Since I love to do dessert, I offered to be in charge of the dessert for the lunch, and I figured I'd ask my grandfather what his favorite dessert was, make it, and bam, that would be that.

(Sarcastic smile).

So I did just that.  I sent an email last week and asked Papaw what his favorite dessert was.  (Yes, my grandfather emails, and apparently he texts too.  How cool is that?)  I should have known that he wouldn't tell me something simple like banana pudding or yellow cake with fudge frosting.  Or lemon pie.  Or strawberry cake with strawberry icing.  The possibilities are endless.  I've made lots of desserts and would feel quite comfortable making lots of desserts.

But that just wouldn't do.  That would be too easy.

Papaw's favorite dessert?  Baked Alaska.  Who has ever heard of Baked Alaska?  If you have, are you younger than 50?  Just curious.  I get the impression this is an old fashioned dessert, but according to Martha, it's gaining in popularity again.  Luckily for me, there were several recipes available online, and it didn't turn out to be too complicated.  Some would argue with me (those who saw me working on it for what seemed like a while), but compared to lots of desserts I've made and others I've read about, Baked Alaska really wasn't that hard.

As it turns out, Baked Alaska is basically ice cream cake covered in meringue.  The "baked" part comes in when you brown the meringue, either with a flambe torch or in the oven.  Since the main ingredient is ice cream, I bought the best tasting vanilla ice cream available at the grocery store.  That made the main ingredient pretty easy.  I just had to make the cake and the meringue from scratch.  I decided to use Martha's recipe for the cake and this recipe for the meringue.

The hard work paid off.  My grandfather said I got an A.  =)  Everyone that had a piece seemed to really enjoy it.  Papaw even asked for seconds.  I am not sure, but I think my Papaw felt loved and celebrated, and that was certainly my goal.

If you're looking for a good dessert for a hot day this summer, give Baked Alaska a try.  You can make it with any flavor cake and any flavor ice cream (or even multiple flavors of ice cream), so the possibilities are endless.  If you try it, let me know how it turns out!