Baked Alaska

My seventh graders just finished learning all about the incredible edible egg.  One of our labs was a Baked Alaska.  I was terrified to have them attempt this dessert.  First off, it requires that they separate eggs and make a meringue.  This is not exactly an easy task!  It also requires ice cream to go in a very hot oven.  In my mind:

7th graders + ice cream + hot oven = Disaster

So before I let them try it, I decided I should make the recipe... just so I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. 

Baked Alaska... ta da!

Baked Alaska is a cake topped with ice cream then "frosted" with meringue, then baked at a very high temperature.  Also, it tastes delicious.

Marshmallow-y.

It was actually super easy to make.  Thankfully I have family who are willing participants in my kitchen experiments.  Otherwise Drew & I might have made ourselves sick by eating the whole thing. 

Cutting the cake.

Serving up layers of love!

Baked Alaska

Ingredients:

• 1 cake layer (I just made a boxed mix)
• Ice cream
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Whip egg whites until foamy.  Slowly add sugar and vanilla and beat until stiff peaks form and the mixture is glossy.  It will look very pretty. :)
3. Place the cake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Scoop ice cream on top of cake, leaving a 1 inch border of cake.
4. "Frost" the cake with the meringue.  Make sure to seal the whole thing up with meringue or the ice cream can escape!
5. Bake for about 5 minutes.  Keep a close eye on it!  The meringue can burn easily.  I told my kiddos to think of it like roasting a marshmallow.  You want it toasty and brown, but not burnt.
6. Serve with chocolate syrup.  Yum.

I could not have been more pleased with how this turned out... for me or for my students.  They all did great.  No one ruined their meringue or burnt their cake.  The funniest part was when they all decided to just plop the whole pan on their table and dig in with forks.  Who needs plates?

If you are looking for a fun and impressive dessert, this is for you!  You could use any flavor combinations of cake and ice cream you like.  I used yellow cake and chocolate chip ice cream, but I think a chocolate version would be fantastic as well.  You can't go wrong when it comes to cake and ice cream.