icecream

The 114th Bake: Summer Pudding Alaska

The last bake and this was one of the scariest looking bakes in the book. So after 13 months and 13 days I have finally baked all the recipes out of the Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking as well as 30 of my own recipes. Exhausting, but fun, fun fun!!! 🙂 I have learnt so much about baking and time management too. And it just shows me that you can achieve whatever you set your mind to. I have loved all the baking, it’s been so much fun, though stressful at times, but well worth the effort. I’m really pleased I did it.

I had already done a Baked Alaska so I knew this was going to be a big bake, but this recipe which was Nancy’s Showstopper, involved making your own ice cream, not one, but three different ice creams!!! Eeeekkk

I needed a bit of time for this one, it took about 24 hours!! No kidding, because each time I made an ice-cream and placed it in the mould I had to leave it to set for 4 hours. It was fun making ice-cream, in fact each ice-cream used different ingredients and a different process. My challenge was that I didn’t have an ice-cream churner but I got away without one, I used my electric beater with the paddle attachment, hey improvisation is a great thing, saved me money and having to acquire another appliance for the kitchen. So I made the forest berry ice cream with frozen mixed berries, caster sugar and cream. Not having any creme de cassis in the house I used Pacharán made from blackthorn berries (close enough to blackcurrant in my book).

  • berries and sugar
  • cream
  • and pacharan! 🙂
  • combined
  • churning in the mixer!!

I whizzed the mixed berries with caster sugar, added cream and Pacharán liqueur, then put it into the mixer to churn until firm. (well, mine didn’t really go firm so to speak, but nothing that the freezer couldn’t fix). So I poured this into the mould and placed another smaller bowl on top to make the hole for the next ice cream. Fun, fun fun. ;/

  • berry ice cream into the bowl
  • making a dome

Time to go to bed and have another crack at the next layer in the morning! For the next ice cream, which was strawberry and mint, I needed an unusual ingredient which I had never bought, a can of

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By Denise, ago

The 93rd Bake: Mary’s Neapolitan Baked Alaska

There are two baked Alaska in this cookbook and I have been holding off, knowing I had to do it, eventually. I figured a late family Christmas function was the perfect opportunity. It was scary, using three litres of ice-cream, (that’s why I needed a crowd) and enigmatic, putting all this ice-cream covered with peaks of meringue into an oven at 240ËšC!!! Eeeek. But I’d have to say it worked and the result was fascinating and delicious.

Our cat recently and very suddenly got sick and passed away. The house is so empty without her. It’s so sad. The only consolation is that she was 15 years old, so had lived a good life and a long life. Watching Bohemian Rhapsody last night, (great movie, one of the best ever!), it was very poignant watching Freddy carry on despite his diagnosis and listening to the lyrics of his songs, “who wants to live forever.” He was so creative, and very inspiring, especially how he carried on wanting to fulfill his dream of making music until he died. In his words, when he is singing to a large audience, “I’m exactly the person I was always meant to be. I’m not afraid of anything.” Oh to find that special place where we belong in the world. What a dream, come true. Making Baked Alaska might not fall into that category!

  • putting ice cream in layers into a dome shaped bowl
  • Whisking the meringue and adding sugar syrup at 115 C
  • piping the meringue onto the dome of ice cream sitting on the sponge

So first of all, what is a Baked Alaska. Well it’s actually a sponge base covered by a dome of ice cream, topped by meringue that is then

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By Denise, ago