Number 26: Make a Baked Alaska

Some might have looked at this particular challenge and either wondered, Whats that all about? or that's not very hard?depending on their knowledge of North American Ice cream/meringue based cuisine. I have been fascinated by the idea of putting ice cream in the oven since I was about seven years old. A friend of mines step dad used to talk about cooking baked Alaska during his time as a chef in the navy. At the time I thought this guy was a hero. Due to my child like sense of wonder I was willing to over look the fact that this man was responsible for my mates parents messy divorce. He had put some ice cream inside a meringue and put it in an oven, and now he was imparting his knowledge.Who cares if he was an adulterer! I cant remember a lot about what he said, I think it was something about having a really hot oven, but the memory has always stayed with me.

Now twenty two years later I was poised to do the unthinkable myself. I was going to put icecream in the oven!Continuing the Dad based theme, I was cooking with my dad Dai. As a trained medical professional he was just who I needed by my side for this most challenging of culinary tasks. Things were all going well before it came to oven insertion. The process of creating the Alaska involved using a sponge base and using a slightly smaller blob of icecream on top of it. Next I had to create my own meringue which consisted of four egg whites whipped up and mixed with sugar. Despite almost getting "whippers cramp" I accomplished the task and things were looking good. Pictures below of the creating:

So in the oven it went for the prescribed four minutes. I would love to add a picture below of a magnificent looking baked alaska, with bronzed meringue cut into to reveal solid icecream. Alas, while the meringue duly browned it didn't cover the icecream and ended up looking a bit more like this:

As Dai said before eating half of it in about two minutes " We couldn't have tried any harder. So there you have it then, challenge 26 completed if not with any real cooking finesse. Is baked Alaska hard to make? yes. Is it a good idea to put icecream in the oven?no. Did |I eat it all? yes. Anyway it was a nice distraction from all the running I've been doing as I am training hard for my marathon challenge which is coming up on April 16th. As always thanks for reading and remember if you ever get told a story of sea based cooking heroics by your mates stepdad then ask him for some more detailed cooking instructions.