BAKED ALASKA

Baked Alaska must have been even easier to put together when
you could still buy ice cream in solid blocks – or maybe you still
can, I never see it like that now though – but even if you decide to
bake the sponge yourself and make a fresh fruit purée instead of
opening a tin, this impressive little pudding is a nice easy one for
absolute beginners to make, or indeed anyone who wants
something sweet after dinner in a lot less time than it takes to open
the box and leave a supermarket dessert to defrost.
Anyway, you can elaborate on the cheat’s version of Baked
Alaska and make as many improvements as you like. This is just
the recipe in its most basic form.
1 large ready-made sponge flan case
Vanilla ice cream
1 tin of mixed berries or summer fruits
4 egg whites
3 tbsp caster sugar
Method
1. Stand the sponge flan case on a cold oven tray and preheat the
oven to Gas Mark 6 (200ºC).
2. Take the ice cream straight from the freezer without allowing
it to sit in the fridge or stand at room temperature first, and
put as many scoops into the flan case as it takes to make a
gently rounded dome on top of the sponge without overdoing
it. (As a very rough guide I’d say the ice cream should be no
more than about 3 1⁄2 in (9 cm) high in the middle – but that’s
only guessing. Just do what looks right to you.)
3. Pile the tinned fruit (without the juice) around the ice cream,
neatly filling in any gaps to make the pudding as smooth and
compact as possible.
4. Whisk the egg whites and about half the quantity of caster
sugar with an electric hand whisk until the meringue stands up
in peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down without the
contents sliding out then fold in the remainder of the sugar.
5. Smooth the meringue all over the top of the fruit and ice cream
in an even layer, making sure it meets the sponge around the
edge, then fluff the meringue up a bit with a fork or blunt knife
– or do whatever you think makes the pudding look good. (You
could use a star-shaped nozzle and a large piping bag to create
a more elaborate pattern with the meringue if you can be
bothered. I never can.)
6. Put the pudding at the bottom of the oven on Gas Mark 6
(200ºC) for about 10 minutes, until the meringue is dried out
and golden in places.