Making Beautiful Things

~Mary Palumbo

There is nothing like the warm, comforting aroma of freshly baked bread just out of the oven that makes a house feel like home.

Baked Alaska is a classic dessert , consisting of cake, and ice cream, topped with a fluffy meringue which can actually be baked in a very hot oven close to a heating element to toast the meringue without melting the ice cream, It’s a very quick process and can also be easily done with the kitchen torch just to get a nice toasted finish on the meringue. I use a rum syrup to soak the cake layers. You can prepare the baked Alaska if you’d like to make it ahead of time, just be sure and keep it frozen.

Ingredients:

Prepared cake of your choice; I use butter poundcake

Ice cream flavor of your choice

Rum Simple Syrup

French Meringue

Stainless steel or glass bowl

Plenty of plastic wrap for hanging over the edge of the entire bowl - this way as your cake is setting in the freezer you can wrap it all up until it’s firm.

Several hours prior to serving your baked Alaska, you want to make your French meringue.

French Meringue Ingredients:

4 large (142 grams) egg whites

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup (198 grams) granulated sugar

Vanilla extract, or other flavoring (optional)

Directions: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until lightly foamy, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Raise the mixer speed to high and add the sugar in a slow, steady stream. Continue whipping until the meringue holds desired peaks (about 4-5 minutes for soft, 5 to 7 minutes for medium, 8 to 9 minutes for stiff). Add the vanilla (or other flavoring, if using) towards the end of mixing. Be sure that your French meringue has come to soft glossy peaks when you mix it. Use immediately.

Rum Simple Syrup Ingredients:

One cup of water

One cup of sugar

Half a cup of rum

Directions: Bring water and sugar to a rolling, boil, turn off heat. Allow to cool completely, then add rum. You can adjust the amount of rum according to your taste.

Assembly Line the entire surface of your plastic lined bowl with even slices of cake. Be sure to fill-in any gaps between the slices so that you have the inside of the bowl completely covered with cake. Add softened ice cream into the center of the bottom of the bowl about halfway up the bowl and fill it all in. Place your bowl into the freezer allow the ice cream to harden. Once the ice cream is hard you can remove the bowl from the freezer and add another layer of cake on top of the ice cream. Soak the cake with the simple syrup and add another layer of ice cream to cover the cake, return to freezer. You can add another layer of cake over the last layer of ice cream so at this point your top and bottom of the cake will be cake and there will be ice cream in the middle with a layer of cake. At this point, wrap the excess plastic wrap over the bottom of the cake and place in the freezer for several hours.

Remove your cake from the freezer and invert it onto a plate unwrapping the bottom first. Once you’ve inverted it remove the plastic wrap, and place it on your serving tray or plate and cover it with your whipped meringue. It’s best to work quickly as possible. You can spread the meringue with the back of a spoon or a spatula to make a pretty pattern by lifting the meringue with the spoon or the spatula so that you get nice swirls and high spots, which will be highlighted by toasting when you finish. Once you’ve covered the entire cake with the meringue place it into the freezer to set for a couple hours. You can use the kitchen torch to accent all the swirls on your baked Alaska, creating a pretty golden color and highlighting your design, (or set in 500 degree oven close to the heating element - watch very closely so it doesn’t burn; should take only a couple of minutes). After toasting the meringue, you can place your baked Alaska back into the freezer until you’re ready to serve it. It’s best to allow it to sit out of the freezer for about 20 minutes before you try to cut it. Using a large knife is the best way to cut into your baked Alaska and it’s good to have a bowl of warm water and a towel to dip your knife in and wipe it dry after each cut so that it makes clean cuts.

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without homemade gingerbread houses. Make it a table display with other Christmas trinkets and let the kids help.

A salad becomes a beautiful presentation for the holidays when using an heirloom variety of speckled Radicchio lettuce. Keep it simple by adding goat cheese and toasted walnuts.