Baked Alaska

First, bake cake.

Chocolate Cocoa Cake

2 1/4 cups flour

1 2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cups cocoa

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 cups water

3/4 cups shortening

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 x 9-inch pan (or use Pam). Measure all ingredients into mixer bowl. Blend 1/2 minute on low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes on high speed scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

Bake 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake.

For Baked Alaska, remove from pan by cutting along edge of pan with flat knife and inverting cake onto cookie sheet lined with tin foil. Place brick of ice cream in center of cake and trim cake to 1-inch edge around ice cream. Freeze cake and ice cream.

Meringue

8 egg whites

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 1/3 cups brown sugar

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

(Note: be sure beaters and bowl are free of grease or egg whites will not beat up right)

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Beat in brown sugar 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Completely cover cake and ice cream with meringue, sealing it to foil on sheet. (If desired cake can be frozen up to 24 hours at this point)

Bake on lowest rack of oven for 3 to 5 minutes until brown. Trim foil to edge of meringue; transfer to serving tray. (I never do this last part but you can if you want to look really fancy). Cut into slices and serve immediately.

Note: this used to be a family favorite for birthdays. It looks so impressive but is surprisingly easy to make. You can experiment with different cake and ice cream combos. One difficulty nowadays is that ice cream is no longer sold in 1/2 gallon bricks, so one needs to find a new way to get the ice cream into that shape. I have used an oval box of ice cream and just shaved off bits to make it square. Another thought I had but have not tried is to soften the ice cream and re-freeze it in a square or rectangular container a day ahead of time.