Week 15: Baked Alaska (The End)

Hi everyone!

A poorly drawn map of
Australia crying because
Matt didn't win

I’ve been betrayed. Our great nation has been betrayed. MasterChef has broken my heart, and judging by Facebook and Instagram comments, the hearts of many other Australians. Matt was robbed. Robbed by some stupid, bloody, fancy pants egg. He is literally the new Poh… and I will never, I repeat, never, forgive network ten for this travesty.

Anyway, this is my last post! I’ve actually had my final dish in mind for a good few weeks now. Surprise, it’s the Baked Alaska! It's generally agreed upon that the Baked Alaska is one of the needlessly difficult dishes out there. I can attest to that. I was really, really hoping my last dish would go swimmingly. But like Matt Sinclair’s, my dreams were crushed. And I’m don’t mean they were slightly shaken about, I mean that they were absolutely shattered.

Frozen Elements: Sorbet and ice cream

Why do I do this to myself?

I lounged about all morning, before reading the recipe at approximately 11 o’clock. This, my friends, was the beginning of a marathon-length nightmare. The recipe summary promised 1 hour and 35 minutes cooking time ‘plus cooling and freezing’. I thought, sweet, that’s probably around 5 hours in total, what a walk in the park. Alas, subtly buried in the recipe, as a sort of afterthought, it was stated that it must set for 'at least 8 hrs'. EIGHT HOURS. Excluding ice cream and sorbet setting time! Needless to say, many rude words were flung around, as I entered extreme panic mode. You see, I couldn’t simply make it tomorrow. My mum’s BFF was coming over specifically to sample my baked goods. 

Thankfully, my first ever attempts of sorbet and ice cream were a reasonable success.

The sorbet was orange juice and sugar, infused with star anise. The aniseed flavour was a little overpowering, but I'm blaming the recipe for that shortcoming. In my mad frenzy I forgot to add the orange marmalade to the orange ice cream, but it was still utterly delish! 

Chocolate cake dome

Yeah look, I'll be the first to admit she ain't pretty

This went a little less well. It turns out that the baking tin I used wasn’t quite large enough, meaning that there wasn’t quite enough cake to build a base for my Baked Alaska. 

The dome is meant to be constructed in a pudding dish. Does anyone in Australia have a pudding dish? Instead, I used a normal bowl. Consequently, constructing the cake dome was an uphill battle. My tragic patchwork quilt of cake glued together with melted chocolate, can be seen on your right.

Assemblage (a.k.a. disaster)

Please set, please set, please set

Alrighty, I’m warning you, the following succession of events is an utter tragedy.

I let my Baked Alaska freeze for a few hours. It wasn’t the recommended 8, but trust me, I left it for as long as possible. The night ended with me furiously whisking meringue during the commercial breaks of the MasterChef finale. What can I say?My reputation for being the most frustratingly last minute person on Earth is well deserved.

Once I slapped the meringue onto the dome, it actually looked quite pretty. However, the icecream and sorbet inside my cake dome weren’t rock solid and it had no cake base. I was iffy about putting it in the oven for ten whole minutes, so my step sister advised me to use the grill, because it would cook the meringue quicker.

I took my eyes off it for like 20 seconds, and suddenly the entire top was burnt to a blackened crisp.

I’d lost all will to live.

But, hold on, it gets worse.

Somehow, I dropped my Baked Alaska.

I bloody dropped it.

I don’t know what happened, but it slipped from my grasp, and onto the open oven door.

I won’t lie, I almost cried. I could feel the tears behind my beedy eyes.

But instead of bawling, I chose to laugh hysterically, as my mother and her best friend tried to comfort me.

Before and after I died of a broken heart

Ranking rubric

Mum & Li, my two biggest fans,
apart from maybe Chelsea Wilson

Taste: 7/10- since the aniseedy sorbet melted into non existence, the icecream + cake combo was quite yummy

Presentation/resemblance to dish: 1/10- need I say more?

Time: 2/10- This is the closest I think I'll ever feel to being in a Pressure Test. I just didn't have enough time. I did achieve a lot in the time frame though

Kitchen Mess: 2/10- it was a lowkey bombsite chez moi

So yeah, my final attempt at being MasterChef worthy, well and truly backfired. At the end of these past few months, I can confidently say that I am not MasterChef worthy (yet). Ah well, that’s life. It’s been a fun ride.

Thanks if you’re reading this, and I hope my failures have been somewhat entertaining to you.

Cheers,

Rosa