Pistachio & Raspberry Icecream Cake

Who wouldn’t love pistachio icecream sandwiched between layers of almond meringue, topped with raspberries and served with a raspberry sauce !

This is a great make-ahead dessert, best made the day before you need it. Adapted from a recipe in a recent Gourmet Traveller magazine. I’ve cheated, and used a really good store-bought vanilla bean icecream instead of making my own.

Ingredients

The meringue

• 3 x 70g eggwhites at room temperature
• 80g caster sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 100g pure icing sugar, sifted

The icecream

• 2 litres vanilla bean icecream, softened
• 250g shelled pistachio nuts, toasted
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 120g dried cranberries, soaked in a little brandy for 1/2 hour, OPTIONAL

Quick Raspberry Sauce

• 250g frozen raspberries, thawed
• 2 tbs sugar & a little water
• lemon juice

Method

The meringue

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and line two oven trays with baking paper onto which, you have drawn 20cm circles.
2. Combine the icing sugar and ground almonds and mix well together.
3. In an electric mixer, whisk the eggwhites and a pinch of salt until soft peaks form, then, while whisking continuously, gradually add the caster sugar.
4. Continue whisking until smooth and glossy.
5. Fold in the almond/icing sugar mixture.
6. Spread the meringue mixture onto the prepared oven trays, each disk being about 1cm thick.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, until meringue is crisp and lightly coloured. Turn the oven off and cool with the oven door slightly open.
8. Store until needed in an airtight container.

The icecream

9. Preheat oven to 150C. Spread the pistachios onto an oven tray and toast for 20 minutes. Cool, and then chop finely with a knife. Don’t be tempted to use the food processor as the result won’t be as good.
10. Line the base of a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper, and grease the sides with almond oil. I prefer to use almond oil for sweet dishes as it’s flavour won’t taint the dish like a vegetable oil can.
11. Remove the icecream from the fridge to soften slightly. In a large bowl, place the softened icecream, cranberries, is using, chopped pistachios, leave a small handful aside for serving, and the vanilla bean paste and mix quickly to combine. I find a knife does a better job than a spoon for this.
12. Spread into the prepared springform tin, smooth the top, cover with baking paper or Go-Between and freeze.
13. Turn the icecream out of the mould and place on one of the meringue disks. Trim the edges carefully with a small fine serrated knife, using a gentle sawing motion. Top with the remaining meringue and trim the edges of that too. Freeze until ready to serve.

To serve

14. Bring the cake out of the freezer and into the main fridge for at least half an hour before serving, so that it can be cut more easily.
15. Transfer to a serving plate, dust with icing sugar and top with a punnet of raspberries and the remaining handful of roasted pistachios. Serve with raspberry sauce.

Quick Raspberry Sauce

16. Put the raspberries, sugar and a little water in a bowl and then microwave on Medium High until the mixture just starts to boil. This pasteurizes the berries to make the coulis last longer, without effecting the delicate fresh taste.
17. Add a splash of lemon juice to intensify the taste of the sauce
18. Give it a quick whirl in the blender to break up the fruit before you pass it through a sieve to remove the seeds.
19. Add a little more water if necessary to make a pouring consistency.
20. Cool, then store in the fridge in an airtight container.