Baked Alaska with raspberry sauce

Directions

Ice Cream mold

1. In a small 7 inch round bowl, spray with cooking oil and line with plastic wrap.

2. Allow ice cream to get soft enough to easily scoop, but don’t let it get runny.

3. When the ice cream is soft, place alternating scoops of ice cream into the lined bowl. Reserve about ½ pint of any flavor. When bowl is almost full (leaving room to add the ½ cake slices later) sprinkle with crushed chocolate cookie crumbs. Press a piece of plastic wrap over the top and press gently to to fill in any gaps between the scoops. Place this in the freezer for approximately 2 hours so the ice cream freezes solid.

4. After 2 hours remove the plastic wrap and spread the remaining ice cream over the cookie crumbs. Place the pound cake slices on top making sure they fit snugly. Cut small pieces of cake to fill in any gaps. Fold the plastic wrap again over the cake and freeze for another 2 hours.

Meringue

1. Place room temperature egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean bowl of a stand mixer and mix until frothy.

2. Very slowly add the sugar one teaspoon at a time beating in between each addition. When all the sugar is added, continue to beat on high until you have stiff peaks.

To assemble

1. Remove bowl with ice cream from freezer and unwrap the plastic wrap from over the cake. Pull the plastic wrap to release the ice cream mold from the bowl. Once released, add it back to the bowl and place a plate over top. Invert the ice cream mold onto the plate. Remove the plastic wrap from the ice cream. Please this back in the freezer uncovered until the ice cream is frozen solid.

2. Do not add meringue to the ice cream if slightly melted. The meringue will slide off the cake.

3. Once frozen, remove cake from freezer and spread or pipe meringue over the cake and entirely coat making sure no ice cream is exposed. Note: You can place this back in the freezer until ready to brown.

4. Using a kitchen torch, brown the meringue. Serve immediately. To store leftovers, loosely cover the cake and place back in the freezer

5. If you do not have a kitchen torch, you can brown the meringue in the oven. Simply heat oven to 500 degrees and place dessert on top shelf. Bake for 2-5 minutes until meringue is browned all over.

Raspberry Sauce

1. In a medium saucepan add raspberries and sugar. Mix water and cornstarch and add to pan.

2. Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 10 minutes or until the raspberries have broken down. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

3. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the raspberry sauce to remove the seeds.

4. Serve room temperature or store in the fridge and serve cold.