Ice cream — choose your favorite flavors! You can also use more than two flavors. Simple flavors will be easier to spread than chunky flavors.

Pound cake — feel free to use a store-bought pound cake or try your hand at my easy pound cake recipe. If you’re baking your own, be sure to let it fully cool before working with it, or it’ll melt your ice cream.

Cream of tartar — this is an acidic salt that acts as a stabilizer for the meringue, allowing it to hold its shape once whipped up. Its also the key ingredient in my meringue cookie recipe.

Sugar — I use superfine sugar for the meringue. If you only have granulated sugar, run it through a coffee grinder beforehand to make it finer. Granulated sugar may leave your meringue gritty.

1. Lightly coat an 8- to 9-inch-wide bowl with oil. Line with plastic wrap, leaving several inches of overhang around the edges.

2. Place alternating scoops of the various ice cream flavors in the lined bowl, reserving half of the 1.5-quart flavor.

3. Press a piece of plastic wrap to the top of the ice cream scoops and gently press down to fill in any gaps between the scoops, smoothing out the top. Freeze for 15 to 20 minutes or until the top is mostly firm.

4. Remove the plastic and spread the remaining ice cream over the mixed scoops.

5. Slice the pound cake into ½-inch-thick pieces. Place pound cake slices on top, making sure they fit snugly together. Fold the excess plastic wrap up over the cake to cover and freeze until solid.

6. Make the meringue by placing the egg whites and cream of tartar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer with the whip attachment. Beat on medium speed until frothy and doubled in volume, and very slowly add in the sugar while beating.

7. Invert the bowl of ice cream and pound cake onto a plate and spread or pipe the meringue all over the ice cream. Make sure it is completely covered and touching the plate, creating a seal.

8. Using a kitchen torch, brown the marshmallow meringue and serve immediately.

Pro Tips for Making This Recipe

• Save your fresh eggs for another recipe. Older eggs whip up higher and fluffier.
• Even a touch of yolk in the egg whites will make whipping up the meringue difficult. I recommend separating the egg yolks and egg whites one at a time in a separate bowl to add to the mixer, so if you break one yolk, you don’t ruin the whole batch.
• Eggs separate easier while cold, but egg whites whip up much better when room temperature. After separating the eggs, let them sit out to bring them down to room temperature.
• Baked Alaska will still be frozen and hard when you cut into it. Be careful when cutting down, as you’ll have to push down hard.
• Change things up by using chocolate brownies for the base instead of a pound cake.
• You can make a batch of Italian Meringue instead of the French for an even silkier covering.
• Don’t try to rush the process. The ice cream needs to be rock solid before you spread the meringue on top. If the ice cream isn’t fully frozen, the meringue will start sliding off.