Which dessert consists of ice cream baked inside a meringue shell?

Baked Alaska is a dessert consisting of ice cream enclosed in a meringue shell and briefly baked.

The dessert usually places ice cream on a sponge-cake base before covering it completely with meringue. It can withstand a short period in a hot oven because the meringue acts as insulation, slowing the transfer of heat to the frozen center. The result is a browned exterior with cold ice cream inside.

The name is associated with Alaska and became popular in the United States during the nineteenth century. A related dessert called omelette norvégienne is used in French cuisine, and the two names are sometimes treated as versions of the same general idea.

Baked Alaska is not simply a baked cake topped with ice cream. The defining feature is the protected frozen filling. Recipes vary in cake type, ice-cream flavor, and meringue style, but the hot-and-cold contrast remains essential.