Baked Alaska Has New York Roots

This vintage ice cream cake makes a great holiday dessert

.Photo: Gage & Tolliner

A few months after my father died on a beautiful spring day only a month after I turned eleven, I attended my cousin Susan’s wedding in Cleveland.

My memory is of a hazy summer day, of the backs of heads of faceless adults sitting in front of me. They blocked my view of the bride and groom. Of the wedding ceremony, I remember nothing.

But there was one bright spot—the dessert my cousin served at the reception, a large Baked Alaska rolled out on a trolley, then dramatically flambéed.

I’d never heard of Baked Alaska, but I loved it instantly—the hot merengue paired with the cold ice cream and a layer of sponge cake. I remember eating that Baked Alaska because it was the only pleasurable moment I can recall from that long summer of darkness.

New York Beginnings

These days, Baked Alaska, which harkens back to the early 19th century, is enjoying a bit of a comeback. You can order it at a range of NYC restaurants, including Delmonico’s, Gage + Tollner, and Sardi’s.

Baked Alaska’s exact origins are shrouded in mystery. The Food Timeline says there are several contenders for the title of inventor of Baked Alaska. Maybe the creator was Thomas Jefferson, a presidential ice-cream lover, or maybe the source was a French count.

No one really knows, but a chief claimant to the the title of Baked Alaska King is Delmonico’s original pastry chef Charles Ranhofer who concocted the dish in 1837 to celebrate the United States' purchase of Alaska from Russia, says Dennis Turcinovic, owner and managing partner of Delmonico’s Restaurant Group.

Ranhofer named his new dessert "Alaska, Florida" to highlight the contrast between the cold ice cream (Alaska) and warm meringue (Florida). The original dish consisted of a walnut spice cake base, apricot marmalade, banana ice cream in the center, and a toasted meringue shell.

You can still order Baked Alaska at Delmonico’s today. And the recipe is based on the original served in what is said to be America’s original fine dining establishment.

The 2024 Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska hasn’t lost its luster, according to Turcinovic, who says it’s the restaurant’s best-selling dessert.

The Baked Alaska at Abigail’s on the Upper West Side—described to those new to the dish as a meringue wrapped around mint chip ice cream—is also a top-seller, says Abigail’s chef Ash Fulk.

“How could you not love a meringue cloud with an ice cream center?” asks Fulk, who fell in love with the dessert, when two decades ago, he served as a sous chef at the W hotel where the dish was on the menu.

He’ll get no argument from me, even though my first bite of Baked Alaska was bittersweet. You’d think I’d never touch the dish again. But I love it, perhaps because, for me, the hot merengue mingling with the cold ice cream brings back sweet memories of my dad.

Recipe: Delmonico’s Original Baked Alaska

Walnut Cake (for 1 full sheet tray):

• 460 grams egg whites

• 400 grams sugar

• 4 grams salt

• 400 grams toasted walnuts

• 260 grams AP flour

• 90 grams trimoline

• 430 grams olive oil

Make a meringue with sugar and salt. Whip to medium peaks. Combine walnuts and flour in a food processor and grind until walnuts are fine powder. Add trimoline to the meringue and whip for a couple of minutes. Slowly pour oil into the meringue and mix just to combine, as further mixing will deflate it. Fold in flour mixture until just combined, spread in a flat sheet tray, sprinkle with chopped toasted walnuts, and bake at 325 for 12 minutes. Cool down and cut into circles.

Apricot Sorbet:

• 505 grams water

• 505 grams sugar

• 195 grams glucose syrup

• 17 grams stabilizer

• 2525 grams apricot puree

• 80 grams lemon juice

• 175 grams apricot brandy

Combine water, sugar, and glucose syrup and bring to a boil. Remove when boiling and blend in stabilizer with a hand blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a hand blender. Strain and spin,

Meringue:

• 375 grams egg whites

• 150 grams water

• 750 grams sugar

• 50 grams of banana brandy

• 5 grams salt

Start whipping egg whites while combining water and sugar in a pot and cooking it into syrup. When the syrup is at 118 degrees C and the meringue is half-formed, slowly pour the syrup into egg whites. Turn to high and whip until firm and stable meringue forms. Add banana brandy and salt and whip for two more minutes. Make sure the formed and unmolded baked Alaska is frozen before you do. Take one, maximum 2, out of the freezer at a time and fully dip each into a meringue, ensuring you cover the sides of the cake. If ice cream is not solid and cold, the meringue will not stick, so keeping it frozen is important. Make sure it is fully tempered for service.