Baked Alaska

A dessert of ice cream on a sponge cake base, covered completely with meringue and browned quickly in a hot oven or with a torch.

Baked Alaska: A baked Alaska with toasted swirled peaks, one slice cut showing ice cream and sponge cake inside
  • Frozen desserts and sweet beverages
  • United States

Also called: Norwegian omelette, glace au four, omelette a la norvegienne, omelette surprise

Baked Alaska seems impossible: hot, toasted meringue outside and frozen ice cream inside. The trick is that the whipped meringue is full of air, which insulates the ice cream from the heat for the few minutes it takes to brown. The cake base protects the bottom.

The ice cream is frozen very firm, shaped into a dome on the cake and fully sealed with meringue. It is browned at a very high temperature or with a kitchen torch and served at once. It is sometimes flamed with a spirit at the table.

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Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Ice cream/shakes/sundae (course notes), Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur (course notes)