It snowed last night. Again. Yes, I know other places have had it worse this year and to be fair there is just a dusting with ice underneath. I suspect it will be gone before I have to drive anywhere and there isn’t enough for me to shovel. For those things I am grateful.
However, the cold makes me pretty anti-anything ice cream. Yes, I know I tell everyone that ice cream is better consumed in winter because the fat and sugar warms you up. That doesn’t mean I do it. In fact, I don’t recall having ice cream since moving to the Hellmouth northern Chicago suburbs, except for a single trip to DQ and in a smoothie every so often. Actually, that is some sort of frozen yogurt. I have had some frozen custard shakes at Culver’s but rarely.
My children haven’t followed with this all things ice cream = increased cold combo. This is a good thing because kids should enjoy their ice cream. (Everyone should, in moderation) Thus brings child choosing this recipe for me to feature. She likes meringue, oranges, and ice cream.
I haven’t the heart to tell her that while I have always been fascinated by Baked Alaska–I have never actually HAD baked Alaska of any sort. It was on the menu of the rare “fancy restaurant” of my youth and always had a waiting period listed, so even if my parents had consented to dessert–the wait time would have knocked it out of contention.
All of that said, this is a pretty good recipe for winter, since navel oranges should be relatively inexpensive.
Orange Alaska
8 navel oranges
1/4 cup grenadine
3 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 pint vanilla ice cream
Slice tops from oranges, remove fruit, cut into bite size pieces with membranes removed. Pour grenadine over fruit and chill. Refill orange shells. Beat egg whites until foamy; add sugar and beat until mixture forms peaks. Top oranges with very firm ice cream and quickly cover with meringue to edge of orange shell, completely sealing over ice cream. Place filled shells on a small bread board or in a shallow pan, lined with several layers of heavy wrapping paper. Bake in a hot oven (400) 3 to 5 minutes until meringue is slightly brown. Serve immediately.
For my mother’s birthday, I knew I wanted to make a cake for her. I wanted to make a cake from her childhood, but not one of her grandmother’s cakes. Those cakes really rock and I share those recipes from time to time. I wanted something a bit different though, so I chose a classic Coca-Cola cake (a southern favorite). Yes, we had a theme.