Chocolate orange bombe Alaska with hot chocolate sauce

Chocolate orange bombe Alaska with hot chocolate sauce

This twist on baked Alaska looks simply stunning – and the dark chocolate and orange flavours are just as good. Try it for Christmas, Hogmanay or New Year

Difficulty and servings

For the keen cook

Serves 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 hr 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

Plus cooling and freezing
Freezable

Freeze up to the end of stage 5

Method

  1. First make the cake: heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Lightly butter a Swiss roll tin and line the base with non-stick baking parchment. Put the whole eggs, egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl and whisk with an electric hand whisk for 8-10 mins until light and fluffy. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of almost simmering water, stirring occasionally.
  2. When the whisked egg mixture is light and fluffy, gently fold in the flour with a large metal spoon or the whisk blades, taking care not to lose too much volume. Beat a small amount of the egg mixture into the melted chocolate, then gently fold the chocolate into the remaining egg mixture. Pour into the prepared tin, then tilt the tin from side to side until even and the corners are filled. Bake for 10 mins until firm, then leave to cool completely.
  3. Line a 1-litre freezer-proof pudding basin with cling film. Cut a small circle of sponge cake to fit the base then cut triangular pieces to line the sides. Fill any gaps with trimmings and save the remaining sponge for later. Place the bowl in the freezer to firm up the sponge.
  4. Make the ice cream: slice the vanilla pod in half lengthways and remove the seeds. Put the milk, vanilla seeds and pod, orange zest, caster sugar and cream into a medium pan and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks together in a large bowl. Pour the hot cream mixture slowly on to the eggs, whisking all the time. Return the mix to a clean pan and stir constantly over a gentle heat for about 5 mins until the mixture has just thickened. Pass through a sieve and leave to cool for 30 mins. Churn in an ice-cream machine (or make by hand, see 'Try' below). Add the marmalade and continue to churn for another 10 mins until thick.
  5. Scoop the ice cream into the cake-lined bowl, leaving a central indent for the sorbet layer. Sit a small bowl in the top of the ice cream to make a smooth indent for the sorbet later to sit in. Freeze for at least 1 hr, until just firm.
  6. Fill the centre of the bombe with orange sorbet, cover the entire base of the bowl with a layer of sponge, cover with cling film and return to the freezer until needed, or at least 8 hrs ahead. This can be done well in advance and that's all the really hard work done.
  7. To make the hot chocolate sauce, grate the chocolate into a bowl and add the golden syrup, butter and warm water. Melt over a pan of just simmering water until melted, stirring occasionally.
  8. About 20 mins before serving, heat oven to 230C/fan 210C/gas 8. Whisk the egg whites and a pinch of salt in a large clean bowl until stiff but not dry. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, bringing it back to stiff peaks before each addition. Turn the bombe out onto an ovenproof serving dish and remove the cling film. Spoon the meringue all over the bombe to completely seal it. Using the back of the spoon or a palette knife, pull the meringue into dramatic swirls. Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden. Reheat the chocolate sauce over a pan as before or in a microwaveable bowl for 1 min on Low, stirring halfway through. Take the Chocolate orange bombe Alaska to the table immediately and serve sliced, drizzled with the hot chocolate sauce.
Try

Making it quicker

Buy two 600ml tubs of best vanilla ice cream. Allow to soften in the fridge for 30 mins, then beat in the grated zest of 1 orange and 5 tbsp marmalade. Use as in step 5. You can also use a bought chocolate cake.

Making ice cream by hand

To churn ice cream by hand, mix the custard base and marmalade together, then freeze in a plastic container for about 90 mins until it starts to freeze around the edges. Stir well with a fork, mashing up any frozen pieces, then repeat this process twice more until the mix is smooth and thick.

Making it sparkle

Pop a few mini sparklers on top and light just before serving. They cost around £2 for a packet of 10. Try tablematters.com or Paperchase.

912 kcalories, protein 11g, carbohydrate 80g, fat 63 g, saturated fat 33g, fibre 1g, sugar 68g, salt 0.46 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2006.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo powdery cheese

    19 August 2008

    powdery cheese rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    really amzing

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  • Binder photo Lisa

    21 November 2008

    Lisa rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this for christmas for those who didn't like Christmas pudding. It went down a treat and looked really impressive. The best bit was that it could mainly be made well in advance.

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  • Binder photo marialk

    16 January 2009

    marialk commented on this recipe

    Like Lisa I also made this for Christmas, however I had to make double the amount as I had 16 for dinner ( actually I had 16 up until the 3rd of January!!). I love making desserts and I will try anything, but I have to say that this looked SOOO impressive going to the table. My husband turned off the lights and we inserted sparklers ( The kids ranging in age from 4 to 12 LOVED this part). So thank you VERY much for making my dessert choice for Christmas so easy. Happy New Year!

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  • Binder photo marialk

    16 January 2009

    marialk commented on this recipe

    Apologies for forgetting to say that I made the sorbet ( with my 9 year old niece) from fresh orange juice, golden caster sugar and one star anise. We also melted the whiskey marmalade and then whizzed it in a food processor before adding it to the vanilla ice cream. It worked really well for us.

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  • Binder photo Cassandra Amy Rose

    05 April 2010

    Cassandra Amy Rose commented on this recipe

    I just used this recipe for the chocolate sauce, which was lovely but extremely rich, so using cheaper chocolate with less cocoa solids wouldn't hurt, as I imagine the pudding would be fairly rich.

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  • Binder photo Donna

    23 September 2010

    Donna rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I also made just the chocolate sauce of this recipe but because it was for children and I didn't want it to be too rich I used half dark and half milk chocolate. It turned out very well and I will use this sauce in future whenever I need a hot choc sauce rather than a cold one.

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  • Binder photo MsMayfair

    14 April 2011

    MsMayfair rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this over three days, so it was a lotta work! But all the componants tasted amazing and i've used the chocolate sauce on many other dishes. This recipe is one of my all times favourites!

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  • Binder photo Ruthy

    19 December 2011

    Ruthy rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this at the weekend for our stage of a Christmas safari supper and it was amazing! Perfect, as I could pop the main part out of the freezer and finish off with the meringue while our guests enjoyed a Christmas cosmopolitan. I wasn't able to find any orange sorbet to buy so made this too. Topped it off with an ice fountain sparkler (Paperchase) which was a great finishing touch! I have enough ice cream and sorbet left so my husband has ordered another for Boxing Day!

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  • Binder photo dollmakers

    03 January 2012

    dollmakers rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I thought that this was amazing, and not actually too tricky! I made the sorbet (first time, super easy) and then bought cornish cream ice cream and mixed in a load of orange zest and juice and returned to freezer (stirred every half hour for a while). To make it less stressful once guests arrived, I made the meringue and completed the entire thing the day before and froze it all. This cooked just fine, but could have done with some melting time pre-oven! Difficult to cut into!! However once served, tasted amazing, and looked spectacular. Going to try a raspberry one next!

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  • Binder photo danicquinn

    29 April 2012

    danicquinn rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Although very time-consuming to make, the individual steps were mostly quite easy. I particularly was happy with how the orange sorbet and chocolate cake went - they're very tasty. I was quite unhappy with the orange ice-cream; next time, I'll cook it in a bowl over simmering water, and be much more liberal with the 'flavours' (e.g. the whiskey, marmalade, etc), and increase the ratio of sorbet to ice-cream. Also, make sure you don't make the meringue peaks/swirls too far from the base (i.e. don't make them too 'peaky'), as they'll burn easily. Although this sounds like a list of criticisms, I was happy with it overall and enjoyed making it, but feel there a few changes before it'll be perfect.

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  • Binder photo dannynowak38

    19 August 2012

    dannynowak38 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this for a dinner party, however I made some awful mistakes. I cooked it on my best plate which exploded in the oven. Next time I will cook it on a baking tray and then transfer it onto my second best plate (because the best one is now in 10 pieces). Also I put it too far up the oven. Next time I will put it in the middle. And one side got burnt (purely my fault, again) because it was too far in the back of the oven right above the burner. The guests enjoyed it and didn't mind too much about the drama. I also forgot to serve the chocolate sauce and just left it in the microwave. However, I can't fault the recipe. Orange sorbet gives it a sharpness, chocolate cake gives it a soft chocolateyness and meringue is crunchy, chewy and soft. Gorgeous. (I just used bought vanilla ice cream as it was and made my own sorbet, recipe from bbc good food)

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Difficulty and servings

For the keen cook

Serves 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 1 hr 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

Plus cooling and freezing
Freezable

Freeze up to the end of stage 5

Impressive finale to a special supper

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 3 tbsp caster sugar
  • 100g/4oz bar dark chocolate (minimum 70% solids), broken into pieces
  • 100g unsalted butter , cut into cubes
  • 50g plain flour

FOR THE MARMALADE ICE CREAM

  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 200ml whole milk
  • 1 large orange , zest only
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 568ml/19 fl oz pot double cream
  • 6 large egg yolks
  • 5 tbsp orange whisky marmalade (good-quality, fine cut)

FOR THE CENTRE

  • 600ml/1pint tub orange sorbet (you will only need approx 400ml), softened slightly

FOR THE MERINGUE TOPPING

  • 4 egg whites
  • 225g caster sugar

FOR THE CHOCOLATE SAUCE

  • 200g/7oz bar dark chocolate (minimum 70 per cent solids)
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup
  • 25g butter
  • 5 tbsp warm water
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912 kcalories, protein 11g, carbohydrate 80g, fat 63 g, saturated fat 33g, fibre 1g, sugar 68g, salt 0.46 g

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