Noodlies, Sydney food blog contributor, Evie Chataway, creates a dramatic dessert for her ‘Game of Thrones’ themed dinner menu.
This Game of Thrones inspired dessert is one you can have fun with in terms of flavour. You can use either ice cream or sorbet and choose whatever flavour you think will work best for you. You could try substituting Maderia cake with chocolate fudge cake, or continuing the blood theme even red velvet cake.
Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 175g caster sugar
- 1 tub of ice cream or sorbet
- 1 x 500g Maderia cake
- 2 tbsp of liqueur
Method
First off line a small bowl with cling wrap leaving a good amount of overhang on the sides. Next, slice the cake into 0.5cm slices and line the bowl on top of the cling wrap.
Take the ice cream or sorbet and fill the bowl cavity. If the ice cream or sorbet is solid then let it sit for a minute or two to soften a little. Fill bowl almost to the top ensuring it is well packed.
Top the bowl with slices of cake, then pull the cling wrap over the top. Place in the freezer with something heavy placed on top of it. Leave it there over night.
Preparing the meringue is incredibly easy if you have a stand mixer, or failing that, a hand mixer. If you don’t have either of these, you can still make this, just with a big mixing bowl and a balloon whisk, it will just take time, patience and a lot of elbow grease. Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk until you reach the soft peak stage – it will look like shaving foam at this point. Start adding the sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking thoroughly between each addition. You’ll be left with a beautiful, glossy meringue mix.
The next step you can do a couple of hours ahead if you wish (ie before your guests arrive) or else just before cooking. Remove the ice cream/sorbet bombe you made earlier from the freezer and remove from the glass bowl, take off the cling wrap and put it on an ovenproof dish. Take the meringue mix and cover the ice cream bombe with it, making sure there are no gaps, including at the bottom where the bombe meets the plate. You can pipe the meringue on with an ice bag and nozzle, but I prefer it to look more snow-like with little peaks here and there.
If you’re not ready to cook it yet put it back in the freezer for an hour or two, else place straight in the oven at 220 degrees for 12 minutes until it starts to brown on the peaks.
If you wish to flambe the baked Alaska then heat your liqueur gently (I used Cointreau) in a small pan. When the baked Alaska is ready remove from the oven and place on the table before your guests. Next, carry through the liqueur in the pan and set light to it with a match. It goes to say that it is very flammable as that’s the whole point of this excercise, but do take extra care when doing this that you don’t burn your fingers (or anyone else for that matter). While it is alight, pour a little around the baked Alaska. I admit I’d had a few glasses of wine by this point in the meal and got a little heavy handed with the flambe, and as a result the sugar in the meringue burnt a little. But it tasted marvellous, like marshmallows toasted on a campfire.
