Hot 'n' Cold

So as well as generally being a bit rubbish at the Whole Blogging Thing recently, I have been more specifically rubbish at the Ice Cream Blogging thing and totally neglecting lovely Kavey's BSFIC challenges.

Actually - it's even sadder than that - in some cases, I've gone as far as to make the ice cream (see my lovely raspberry, chocolate and pistachio number here), but still not managed to get around to the actual blog part. I know, I know - I am a bad person!

Anyway, this time round I was super keen and might even have been the VERY FIRST person to throw my hat into the baked alaska making ring, though you'll have just to take my word for that, as, despite making (and eating) it weeks and weeks ago, I've only just got around to writing it up for your reading pleasure!

One of the reasons for my extreme enthusiasm about the theme this month is that I have never before eaten baked alaska. Never. Not in my whole wide life.

I looked up a few recipes and things and, contrary to my expectations, they all used French meringue (just eggs whites whisked cold with sugar) and were really and truly baked.
Being the lazy and disobedient person that I am, however, I opted for Italian meringue and very little baking.

I whipped up a quick condensed milk ice cream using a mixture of cream and yogurt (again, super lazy, but having learnt how to do this in an earlier BSFIC, I've really never looked back) and swirled it with lemon curd (simply because lemon curd is delicious) into a kind of lemon ripple monstrosity.
When the ice cream was set, I scooped out the roundest, prettiest scoops that I could manage and stuck them back in the freezer to harden up (overnight, I think).

I made a quick Italian meringue by beating up some egg whites and very gradually whisking in some hot sugar syrup until the whole thing was cool and glossy.

I cut flat circles out of a madeira cake and spread them with a little bit more lemon curd, then cunningly balanced the ice cream balls on top.

I had planned just to blowtorch the tops, but, in fact, I found that it worked better to stick them into a hot hot oven for a couple of minutes.

And lo, they were everything I dreamed they would be. Hot and cold at the SAME TIME - genius!

Now that I know how easy and delicious it is, I am definitely going to bake further alaskas - pink fruit addict that I am, I might try some sorbets/swiss roll combinations next time - I reckon that would be pretty nice and, since it's officially* summer now, totally seasonally appropriate too :)

This is my entry to the BSFIC April roundup - check it out!

*In my house, at least...