What Is the Origin of Baked Alaska?

Baked Alaska with strawberry ice cream.

Baked Alaska is a type of dessert that was invented in the 1800s and became popular in the American 1950s. It involves some type of ice cream surrounded by a pastry crust, then baked for a short time so that the ice cream does not fully melt.

Early Background

The concept of a Baked Alaska dessert was around before it was actually termed Baked Alaska. At a White House dinner thrown by Thomas Jefferson in 1802, a guest described the dessert as "Ice-cream very good, crust wholly dried, crumbled into thin flakes." A physicist named Benjamin Thompson made a claim to inventing it in 1804 after doing an experiment with egg whites; he called it omelette a la norvegienne (Norwegian omelette).

Naming the Dessert

Baked Alaska received its name at the famous Delmonico's Restaurant in New York in 1876. It was named in recognition of the recently acquired state, Alaska.

Recipe

One recipe for Baked Alaska, printed in 1896 in "The Original Fannie Farmer 1896 Cookbook," goes as follows:

"Whites of 6 eggs

6 tablespoons powdered sugar

2 quart brick of ice cream

Thin sheet sponge cake

Make meringue of eggs and sugar, cover a board with white paper, lay on sponge cake, turn ice cream on cake (which should extend one-half inch beyond cream), cover with meringue, and spread smoothly. Place on oven grate and brown quickly in hot oven. The board, paper, cake, and meringue are poor conductors of heat, and prevent the cream from melting. Slip from paper on ice cream platter."

References

• FoodReference: Baked Alaska
• What's Cooking America: History of Baked Alaska