For anyone who has taken part in one of our virtual events or in-person food tours and activities, you know that in addition to serving up yummy food, we also like to serve up fun foodie facts. Since we are all about ice cream this year, we're sharing the backstory behind some of life's favorite desserts that can also be inspiration for your Ice Cream Social, whether it's in-person or online.

The Popularity of Merengue Desserts

While we ofter attribute merengue to French patisseries, we can actually thank an American - yes, an American - to discover that whipped egg whites made very good insulation. American-born physicist and inventor Sir Benjamin Thompson's discovery of this fact would lead to the creation of the Baked Alaska. According to the site We are Chefs, Thompson made this discovery while living in Europe at the turn of the 19th Century. (By the way, he also invented the double boiler, the sous vide cooking method and a drip coffee pot. He's truly a godsend for cooks everywhere!)

Clearly the French were paying attention and merengue delicacies became very popular. French chefs were whipping up an early version of the Baked Alaska called  “omelette Norwegge.” This dessert consisting of layers of cake and ice cream covered in meringue, then broiled.

How did "Omelette Norwegge" become so American?

As those of us in the food tour industry know, food brings people together and we see food staples cross borders around the world. Clearly chefs all over saw and tasted the popularity of the "omelette Norwegge" in France. But it was Chef Charles Ranhofer of the famous Delmonico's steakhouse in New York City that started serving a dessert he called "Alaska, Florida." This was in honor of America's recent purchase of the Alaska Territory in 1867. The United States made an agreement with Russia to buy Alaska for $7.2 million on March 30 of that year. Of course not everyone was in support of the purchase and critics started calling it "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox" as the agreement was signed by then Secretary of State William Seward. Of course that criticism stopped when gold was found in 1896 with the Klondike Gold Strike.

Perhaps that's why Ranhofer's version was a bit more extravagant than what was traditionally enjoyed across the pond. It was made of banana ice cream (a rich delicacy not often enjoyed by regular ice cream fans at the time), walnut spice cake and, of course, meringue torched to a golden brown.

Celebrating the Baked Alaska

This famous dessert is typically found in its original form in a larger cake-like structure that is sliced in quarters for many people to enjoy. You can follow a recipe like this one from the Food Network or Martha Stewart. But in our favorite ice cream sundae fashion, you can also put a spin on it by creating a Baked Alaska-inspired ice cream sundae that may not be as labor intensive as the original, but equally yummy. Check out our video that we shared on Instagram here to find two ways that you can celebrate some yummy history.