for the birthday boy

Has anyone out there ever tried to make a Baked Alaska? Let me say, it was not what I predicted. One of my girlfriends, Megan, had made a promise to a friend many moons ago that she would make him Baked Alaska. She made this promise not knowing exactly what the dessert was, but with a little help from the internet, we found a recipe and spent a few nights experimenting.

While there may be many different variations of this recipe this is the one we used, making a few alterations:

1 layer sponge cake {or in our case angel food cake}
1 qt. ice cream
4 egg whites
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Beat egg whites until nearly stiff, beat in sugar gradually, add vanilla and beat until stiff
2. Place a wood board at least 1 1/2 inches thick and cover top with waxed paper {if you use a regular baking sheet the metal will heat up too quickly, where the wood will absorb some of the heat}
3. Place round of sponge cake on board, heap ice cream quickly on top leaving a 1 inch margin of cake all around; cover thickly with the meringue
4. Brown quickly in very hot oven {450 degrees} and serve at once!

We decided to make a few mini Baked Alaska's for his roommates and making one large one for the birthday boy himself. For the main cake we used an angel food cake instead of sponge cake {which is what the recipe called for} and it turned out pretty delicious!
It was Megan's idea to add cherries {to the birthday boy's cake} before the ice cream was heaped on top. After the ice cream was added and refrozen for a few hours we added hard shell chocolate sauce {just before we added the meringue} and let me tell you, that was totally the way to go.