Baked Alaska/Italian Meringue question

[MildWest]

Am attempting Gordon Ramsay's mini baked alaska's tonight.

He says to make the italian meringue, assemble the whole lot (cake, raspberries, ice cream then meringue) then freeze til serving, when you blowtorch the top.

But, I'm making these to take to a friends so don't want to freeze the whole lot as it's too bulky to transport.

Can I make the meringue in advance, if so will it sit happily in a bowl, or does it set? I'm guessing the hot sugar syrup cooks the meringue, so the final blow torching is for colour, rather than cooking it

I haven't followe dthis recipe, but baked alaska usualyl has quite 'raw' meringue an dit is just cokked on the outside/coloured.

My worry with making the merignue in advance would be that the air would come out and it would deflate, although I might be imagining that would happen...

Well yes, I wondered that it might deflate too. The recipe does say to make the meringue and set aside.

I wondered if, because you've 'cooked' it with the hot syrup, that it might set the egg white and stop that happening?!

yes you are quite right - italian meringue is pretty stable and doesn;t deflate easily

Thanks, it worked fine in the end. Made the meringue a few hours before, put it into a tupperware, then spread it over the stacks just before baking. Tasty, but I reckon could do just one layer of cake and more raspberries.