Individual Baked Alaskas with Honeycomb Ice Cream & Brown Sugar Pound Cake

Yossy Arefi from Apt. 2B Baking Co. shares dessert projects that demand a little extra time and effort. Because your weekends should always be sweet.

This week: Yossy’s showing us how to make little Baked Alaskas, step-by-step, and today's she's completing the project.

Now that we’ve made Honeycomb Ice Cream and Brown Sugar Pound Cake, it’s time to make Swiss Meringue and assemble the Individual Baked Alaskas. If you'd like to serve these for a dinner party, they can be assembled and frozen (meringue and all) up to 24 hours in advance. If you go this route, let the cakes soften a bit by letting them sit at a moderate room temperature (if it's too hot, the ice cream will melt) for 5 to 7 minutes, then torch the meringue just before serving.

Individual Baked Alaskas

Makes 10

1 recipe Honeycomb Ice Cream
1 recipe Brown Sugar Pound Cake
1 recipe Swiss Meringue

Before you plan on assembling, prepare and cool the pound cake and chill the ice cream.

Slice the pound cake into 1/2-inch slices. Use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut each slice into a circle. Save the scraps for snacks.

  

Arrange the circles on a pan or plate that will fit in your freezer. Top each slice with a scoop of honeycomb ice cream. Freeze, uncovered, until the ice cream is very firm, at least 4 hours or overnight.

While the cake and ice cream and cooking, prepare the Swiss Meringue:

Makes about 5 cups

 

5 large egg whites
1 1/4  cups granulated sugar
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the egg whites and sugar together. Place the bowl of the stand mixer over a double boiler and cook, stirring occasionally, until the egg whites are very warm to the touch and the sugar has dissolved.

Whip the egg whites on medium-high until stiff peaks form. Add in the salt and vanilla extract and whip to combine well. Cool slightly before using.

 

When the meringue is cool, you can start coating the cakes.

Remove a couple of cakes from the freezer and use a spoon or offset spatula to top each cake with about 1/4 cup of the meringue. Coat the ice cream with meringue, making sure to seal the outside of the cake with meringue. 

Refreeze the meringue-coated cakes for at least 1 hour and up to overnight. Repeat with the other 5 cakes.

Use a culinary torch to brown the meringues, and serve immediately.

  

Photos by Yossy Arefi