Bombe Alaska recipe, brought to you by MiNDFOOD. Belts may be a-bursting, but no Christmas meal is complete without a delicious sweet treat.
Serves 6-8
600g purchased madeira cake
500g vanilla ice-cream
200g glace cherries, chopped
250g chocolate ice-cream
50g pistachio kernels, finely chopped
4 egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
Grease a 5-cup capacity pudding basin and line with plastic film. Trim all sides of madeira cake and cut into 1cm-thick slices, lengthways. Cut slices into 4cm-wide rectangles. Line sides of prepared bowl with madeira cake overlapping slightly. Trim excess. Line base of bowl with a round of cake.
Place vanilla ice-cream into a bowl and soften (but do not melt). Add cherries and stir until well combined. Using a palette knife, spread ice-cream mixture evenly over madeira cake. Press a small 1 1/4-cup capacity bowl into centre of ice-cream. Place in freezer for 2 hours or until ice-cream shell is firm. Gently remove small bowl and return dessert to freezer.
Place chocolate ice-cream into a bowl to soften. Add pistachios and stir until combined. Spoon into centre of ice-cream dessert. Cover and place in freezer overnight.
Line an oven tray with baking paper. Remove dessert from basin and place upside down on prepared tray or a heatproof serving platter. Place in freezer for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 200˚C. Place eggwhites and a pinch of salt into the small bowl of an electric beater. Beat eggwhites until soft peaks form. With beater running, slowly add sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, beating until well combined and sugar is dissolved. Beat meringue until thick and glossy.
Working quickly, spread meringue over surface of pudding. It is very important that every part of the dessert is covered with meringue, especially at the very base of dessert. The meringue insulates the cake underneath and prevents the ice-cream from melting. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until meringue is light golden. Transfer to a serving platter. Serve immediately.
Note: If you have a heat gun you can use this to colour the meringue.