Practical baked Alaska | ice cream, cake and Italian meringue

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**RECIPE**

For the cake:

1/2 cup (60g) cake flour (all-purpose would be ok instead)
1 1/4 cups (150g) powdered sugar (could use 3/4 cup granulated sugar instead)
1/2 cup (50g) cocoa powder (or replace with more flour if you don't want chocolate)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks (reserve the whites for the meringue
1/2 cup (140g) Greek yogurt (could use sour cream instead)
1/3 cup (85 mL) milk (coffee would be good instead, water would be fine)
1/2 cup (120 mL) any neutrally-flavored cooking oil

For the ice cream:

Two pints (946 mL) any ice cream you like (I used strawberry)

For the meringue:

4 egg whites (reserved from the yolks for the cake)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (a little squeeze of lemon or dash of vinegar would be fine instead)
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch (or any refined starch)
1 cup (200g) sugar
1/2 cup (120 mL) water
a squeeze of corn syrup (if you have it — honey would work too)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
tiny pinch of salt

Get a 9-inch (23 cm) square cake pan — you could use something a little bigger but not smaller. Cut a square of parchment paper big enough to cover the pan and reach up beyond the sides. Cut diagonal slits into all four corners so that the parchment will sit reasonably secure inside the pan.

Get your oven heating to 350ºF/180ºC.

Combine all the ingredients for the cake, whisk/beat until smooth and keep mixing for a couple minutes to whip some air into the batter. Pour it into the cake pan and bake until a skewer or knife comes out of the center clean — mine took 25 minutes but the time will depend on a lot of factors.

Cool the cake on the counter for a bit and then transfer it to the freezer to harden for at least 30 min. About 10 min before you want to do everything else, take your ice cream out and put it on the counter to soften. When it's squishy — soft but not melted — take the cake out of the freezer and drop the ice cream evenly over the surface in dollops. Use the back of a big spoon or a spatula to smooth out the ice cream to an even layer and return the pan to the freezer to harden while you make the meringue.

Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a small sauce pan and turn the heat on high. While it comes to a boil, put the egg whites, cream of tartar and corn starch in a large, heat-proof mixing bowl and whip them until you get firm peaks. When the boiling syrup reaches 240ºF/115ºC, carefully drizzle it into the egg whites as you continue to whip. Once all the syrup is in, keep whipping until the meringue cools down to where it's warm (but not hot) to the touch. Mix in the vanilla and the salt.

While the meringue is still warm and pliable, take the pan out of the freezer, dump on the meringue and smooth it out to an even layer. Return the pan to the freezer and let it harden for at least a couple hours — overnight is fine.

When you're ready to eat it, use the parchment to lift the whole thing out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Peel the paper off the sides. You could brown the top now, or cut it into 6-9 individual pieces before you brown them (wipe the knife in-between cuts to ensure clean edges).

You have at least four options for browning the top:

1) Put the whole thing under a very hot broiler (grill). You might melt the ice cream a little, but if you throw it in straight from the freezer, it'd be fine. This would work best if you browned the whole thing at once, rather than browning individual pieces.

2) Use a cheap fire stick to singe the top. This take a little while and will only do a really good job on the meringue peaks.

3) Use a kitchen torch. This is quick, effective and looks nice.

4) Plate the individual slices, douse them in a very high-proof spirit (I used 190 proof Everclear) and use a fire stick or warm match to ignite the booze. Do this at the table, so people can enjoy the show and blow out the fire before it burns/melts the dessert too much. Be careful, obvs. And turn the lights out so the flames are more visible.