Shmonn Bakes: Great British Bake Off Baked Alaska

Who's excited for The Great British Bake off tonight? I am certainly am, and in honour of the show I decided to make my own version of last week's show-stopper baked alaska challenge.

Well first things first. This is a pretty stressful thing to make, even without Paul Hollywood's piercing blue eyes burning through your ice-cream turning it into a pool of despair (yeah that's right, I know who's to blame for 'bin-gate' - I'm on to you Hollywood).

Conspiracy theories out of the way, my version of this ice cold treat is a 'Beehive Baked Alaska.' So a honey flavoured ice cream atop an almond sponge with a raspberry jam centre.

In order to fully recreate the pressure of the tent I put an image of Paul and Mary on my fridge door looking disapprovingly as I ran around the kitchen like a headless chicken.

Yes, that is a black and white print out of Mary and Paul (colour printing is really expensive - ok?), yes it has been cellotaped into the door, and YES I didn't even cut it straight. But you can't say I didn't put any effort into this joke.

So with Mary and Paul in place let's get on with the method (of my madness).

For the Ice-cream

500ml Double Cream
4 tbsp Honey
3 Egg Yolks

1. Place the cream and honey into a pan. Bring to the boil.

2. Whisk together the yolks in a different bowl.

3. Add the hot cream to the eggs (slowly - you don't want to curdle the mixture) and place the mixture in an ice cream maker, or otherwise in a freezable container. I put mine in a round bowl layered with cling film in order to place on the sponge and create the desired 'beehive effect.'

For the Jam

250g Raspberries
200g Sugar
Zest and juice of half a lemon

1. Mix together the raspberries and sugar, then add the lemon juice and zest.

2. Bring to the boil and leave on a rolling boil for 5-10 minutes. You don't want to produce a jelly like jam, but quite runny one.

3. Once the jam has cooled, set aside and get on with the sponge!

For the Sponge

250g Caster Sugar
250g Butter (softened)
175g Self Raising Flour
75g Ground Almonds
5 Eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Then whisk together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the eggs in one at a time, making sure they are fully incorporated each time.

3. Fold in the flour and almonds and place into two greased sandwich tins.

4. Place in the oven and remove once a thin sharp knife comes out clean.

For the Meringue

225g Caster Sugar
4 Egg Whites

1. Whisk the eggs whites together until they form stiff peaks.

2. Whilst the eggs are beating place the sugar and 6 tablespoons of water into a pan.

3. Mix together and place on the heat. (Don't forget to keep an eye out on your egg whites!) Let it come to a boil. Place your thermometer into the syrup. Once the temperature reaches 120c then take off the heat. The final mixture should be clear.

4. Slowly pour your sugar syrup into the eggs whites whilst constantly whisking. Make sure you pour slowly and steadily, once you have done so continue to whisk until the mixture becomes cool.

5. Leave the mixture to cool completely before piping.

The Assembly

The most important thing to remember with this is to keep a cool head. Also plan where you are going to assemble it, where you will store it etc etc. Trust me, planning is key (I learnt this the hard way).

So I started by cutting the top off of one of my ready sponges. This helps keep the cake even and also means that the jam can soak through into the sponge a little. I then placed the second sponge on top of this. Afterwards I cut a hole as big as the bowl to create a gap between the sponge and the ice cream, this way I could put more jam and fresh raspberries in between the layers.

Afterwards I got the bowl of ice cream out and placed on top of the sponge. This is where planning is key. I made space in my freezer so I could just place the sponge and the ice cream in there straight away. That way I had time to prepare my meringue for piping.

Once I was happy to start piping I removed the sponge and ice cream from the freezer and piped the whole thing. This was the stressful part. I managed to get meringue all down my top and all over the surfaces. It looked a bit like a meringue bomb had gone off.

Finally I got my new fancy chefs torch out and started blowtorching the bad boy.

And there we go - tah-dah. BAKED ALASKA!!!!

The only thing left to do is serve it! Or if you're me, frantically carry it outside to photograph in natural lighting, whilst the builders from the building site next door to your flat stare at you, and try to get as many good shots as you can before the whole thing disintegrates, stress eating big bits of cake ice cream/ meringue to try and clear up the scene as you go along.