DEAR MISS MANNERS: Baked Alaska is vexing me ... it seems to want every sort of utensil because of all its textures.
Would the older way have been ice cream forks and perhaps dessert knives? Surely there were not actually baked Alaska spoons. What might a poor hostess with less than a full intimidating set of flatware use instead?
GENTLE READER: Baked Alaska spoons! What a good idea. And how curious that they were not invented, as that dessert was first made in the 19th century, just when the vogue for specialized silverware was raging.
Fortunately, it can be eaten anyway. Do you have ice cream forks (round bowls with wide tines)? Probably not, as that Victorian proliferation of tools so terrified diners everywhere that it has all but disappeared.
But you presumably have forks and oval spoons, which are the standard dessert service for treats that involve both something crumbly that can be cut with the side of the fork, and something gooey.