Easy Does It!

STYLISH DESSERTS THAT ARE OH SO SIMPLE TO MAKE

Lemon raspberry baked Alaska

MAKES 6

Everyone loves an individual dessert and baked Alaska is always a huge crowd-pleaser – it screams effort, yet is deceptively easy to put together. These can be made round or square, just make sure they’re loaded up with tangy lemon curd.

1 store-bought sponge

6-8 tbsp lemon curd

6 big scoops vanilla ice cream

½ cup of sugar

¼ cup of water

2 egg whites, room temperature

1 tsp lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Freeze-dried raspberries crushed

1 Decide whether you’d like round or square desserts and cut the sponge accordingly – I opted for three layers of 1.5-2cm-thick sponge, cut into 7-8cm rounds for each dessert. Cut a hole out of one of the sponge layers (so that it looks like a donut). Spread lemon curd over one round, top with a donut-shaped sponge and fill the hole with lemon curd, then put the third and final sponge layer on, topping with a scoop of ice cream. At this stage, they can be frozen until required.

2 To make the meringue coating, bring the sugar and water to the boil in a small saucepan, not stirring, for about 5 minutes or until it thickens to a syrup. While this happens, use an electric beater to whisk the egg whites until they’re soft peaks. Add lemon juice and salt, then beat some more. Stream the syrup into the egg whites, increasing the speed to medium high, and beating until the mixture is thick and glossy – about 5-8 minutes.