Baked Alaska

These are one of the best things I've made! They're fun to make and taste absolute amazing!! I used the recipe in the Great British Bake Off book (is there a theme developing here??). The meringue can be made a while before you construct and cook the pudding which is very convenient. I was surprised at how long the recipe said to whisk the egg whites for (over 20 minutes in total) but it really works. You whisk the egg whites and sugar over a pan of hot water so that the meringue cooks which seems to make it take longer to whisk to stiff peaks. Then you keep whisking while it returns to room temperature and it goes so thick and creamy, it's wonderful! I think this is the same as marshmallow? Don't taste it before you've scraped it all out of the bowl to use or you will lose all motivation to get as much as possible off of the whisks! Never mind the baked alaska, I could have just eaten a bowl of the meringue! You are going to need as much of the meringue off of the whisks and bowl etc. because the icecream has to be fully covered so that it doesn't melt in the oven. As for the cake bit, the recipe says to use 1 slice of home made swiss roll per pudding. I didn't want to go through the fuss of making a swiss roll so bought one instead but these are significantly smaller than a home made one so I used two slices rather than one which worked pretty well size-wise. They're a little fiddly to assemble but they only take 3-4 minutes in the oven (great for if you're very impatient!). I would definitely recommend these. They're not too difficult to make and will guarantee happy noshing! Absolutely my new favourite pudding!

Quote of the day: "I think it's the happiest pudding I've ever had!"