The Librarian Baked Alaska Challenge

Some of you may have read my Humble Samoan Chicken post. Wondering about the line between pride and humility. Excitement and showing off. Well, here I was in my favorite place in Radford...the library.
Being excited about something I had just made and sharing that excitement with the children's librarian..when my prideful side said,
"If you ever want me to make anything."
Like I could make "anything"!
Well lightening didn't strike but she did give me a challenge. Baked Alaska!!
I said, "Baked Alaska!"
I had to take a chair and stop my brain which kept saying, "I can't do that, I can't do that".
Once the fear was under control...I began my study of Baked Alaska..and found some great websites to share with you.
Check out a Video
A recipe
The History of the dessert

The hardest direction was the following:

• Place a board at least 1 1/2 inches thick between 2 pieces of corrugated paper; cover top with waxed paper.

I thought it must need it for insulation of the ice cream! Luckily we are moving and had plenty of cardboard!! And the men could do this part..right? Wrong...see below.

I used already prepared sponge cake because I wanted to do individual sizes for our "spur of the moment" guests. We had friends bring us dinner..we tied them up so they would stay and dine with us!

I had everything ready to go before baking so that we could serve it immediately.

4 egg whites
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat until stiff.
Top your ice cream with the egg white mixture. Any ice cream will do..I thought strawberry would be a nice contrasting color to the cake.

Top with egg whites. I found that crazy was best..I tried to be creative and perfect with the spirals but that didn't look as good and was too time consuming. Just make sure that your ice cream is COMPLETELY covered or they say it will ooze..yuck.

The video said to use a 500 degree oven but the recipe I used said 450...so 475 it was!

Baked, warm and ice cold on the inside!! You must like meringue to enjoy these..Bon Appetit!

Oh, I had asked the men to help..you know cardboard and wood. But, they played with salt clay instead.