Browse All Recipes

Butterscotch snowball bombe

Where ice-cream, meringue and a brownie base combine into one grand flourish of a dessert.

  • 1 hr 5 mins preparation
  • 15 mins cooking (plus cooling, freezing)
  • Serves 10
  • Print
    Print
This riff on a baked Alaska is surprisingly simple to make. It incorporates two store-bought ingredients (ice-cream and dulce de leche) with a homemade brownie base and an Italian meringue frosting. Start this recipe a day ahead to freeze the bombe (and make sure you clear enough space for it in the freezer).

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 55 gm (¼ cup) caster sugar
  • 90 gm dark chocolate, melted, cooled slightly
  • ¼ tsp cream of tartar
  • 3 litres vanilla-bean ice-cream, plus 1 cup extra
  • 4 x 45 gm chocolate-coated coconut bars (see note), coarsely chopped
  • 250 250 gm dulce de leche (see note)
Meringue frosting
  • 440 gm caster sugar
  • 4 egg whites

Method

  • 1
    Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 23cm springform tin and line base and side with baking paper.
  • 2
    Beat egg yolks and half the sugar in a small bowl of an electric mixer until pale and thick (5 minutes). Stir in chocolate.
  • 3
    Beat eggwhites in a clean small bowl of an electric mixer until just beginning to aerate (30 seconds). Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form (3 minutes). Gradually add remaining sugar, beating after each addition until sugar is dissolved and mixture is thick and glossy (5 minutes). Using a large metal spoon, fold meringue into chocolate mixture in two batches. Pour mixture into tin and smooth the surface.
  • 4
    Bake cake until set in the centre (15 minutes). Turn out cake onto a wire rack covered with baking paper and set aside to cool.
  • 5
    Place scoops of ice-cream in a large bowl, allow to soften slightly, then fold chopped chocolate bars through. Spoon ice-cream mixture into a 21cm 2-litre-capacity bundt cake tin and smooth the surface. Top with chocolate cake to cover the ice-cream and bundt tin hole, forming a base for the cake bombe. Cover and freeze until firm (3 hours).
  • 6
    Combine the extra ice-cream and dulce de leche.
  • 7
    Dip bundt tin in warm water for 10 seconds. Turn out ice-cream onto a chilled plate. Spoon dulce de leche mixture into the hole. Cover and freeze until firm (2 hours).
  • 8
    Meanwhile, for the frosting, stir sugar and 160ml water in a small saucepan over medium heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves (2 minutes). Bring to the boil and cook without stirring until syrup reaches 115°C on a sugar thermometer (5 minutes). Allow bubbles to subside.
  • 9
    Meanwhile, beat eggwhites in a clean bowl of an electric mixer until soft peaks form (3 minutes). With motor running, slowly add hot syrup to eggwhites in a thin, steady stream, beating until firm peaks form (10 minutes).
  • 10
    Spread frosting over cake, mounding up in the centre and swirling with the back of a large spoon. Just before serving, use a kitchen blowtorch to lightly brown the frosting.

Notes

Note Use a chocolate bar of your choice. Dulce de leche
is available from delicatessens and select supermarkets. If you can, lock in the base of your springform tin upside-down, so the base is level. This will make it easier to slide the cake off the base.