Orange and Coconut Easter Egg Bombe Alaska

Start by making the orange ice cream centre. To do this, combine the orange zest, juice and sugar in a bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Once dissolved, add the thickened cream and whip until soft peaks form. Transfer the mixture to a tea cup lined with cling film (so you can pull the ice cream out of the mold easily when it is set). Transfer to the freezer for 2 hours or until set enough to remove from the mold.

Once the orange ice cream is set, begin the coconut ice cream. Combine the coconut cream and icing sugar in a bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Once dissolved, add the thickened cream and whip until soft peaks form. Transfer the mixture to a dolly varden mold (see below), or a large metal bowl that is lined with cling film. Remove the orange ice cream from the mold and push into the centre of the coconut ice cream mixture until the orange ice cream is level with the coconut mixture. Transfer it all to the freezer and freeze for at least 6 hours (preferably overnight). The ice cream mixture did not completely fill the mould as I wanted to leave space for the chocolate cake.

To make the chocolate cake, preheat oven to 180° Celsius. Beat butter and caster sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the cocoa powder, and then the eggs individually, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and milk alternately a third at a time, beating between each addition and starting and ending with flour. Stir in lightly to combine. Transfer to a greased non-stick jelly roll pan (or baking tray) and bake for 12 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove and cool completely, then cut two circles from the cake the same size as the bottom of the mold. Stack them on top of each other and then push them into the base of the mold. If you freeze the cake in with the icecream, by the time you have finished spreading the meringue on the ice cream and have torched it to serve, the cake base will have defrosted.

You can complete everything and to this point and keep it in the freezer until the day you need to serve. This can be made a week in advance and kept in the fridge.

When ready to serve, make the meringue. To do this place a small saucepan with 1 inch of water over high heat and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn down the temperature to a simmer. Combine the egg whites and sugar in a metal bowl that will fit over the saucepan of water (without touching) and place it over the saucepan, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves completely. Pour the egg whites and sugar into a stand mixer, and whisk for 8 minutes until the bowl of the stand mixer has cooled and the mixture has increased in size.

Release the ice cream cake from the mold and place on a serving plate with the cake as the base. Spread the meringue over the top of the ice cream and torch the meringue lightly with a chef's torch. Place a ring of solid chocolate eggs around the outside and serve. Make sure you cut this at the table, because the secret egg centre is designed to be a surprise for your guests.

NOTES

• The coconut cream I used is the sort you find in a can in the Asian section of your supermarket - it yields an incredible flavour for this ice cream.
• With swiss meringue, please weigh both your egg whites and sugar as the ratios are integral to the meringue turning out (take it from me). I thought I understood how swiss meringue worked, but it wasn't until I read The Tough Cookie's post on swiss meringue that I truly understood the variables!
• The Dolly Varden mold I used for this cake is this one