A domed ice bombe on a white cake stand, a wedge cut away to show a pale vanilla shell speckled with vanilla seeds around a pink strawberry filling, ringed with halved strawberries in their juice, with a silver cake server on a pink napkin beside it. — A strawberry bombe cut open to show the vanilla ice around its strawberry filling, ringed with strawberries.

Strawberry Bombe (1907)

Name: Strawberry Bombe
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 10 h
Total time: 11 h
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 570 ml whole milk; 1 vanilla bean, split; 5 large egg yolks for the ice cream; 150 g sugar for the ice cream; 100 g sugar for the syrup; 80 ml water; 4 large egg yolks for the bombe; 150 g ripe strawberries for the purée; 200 ml heavy cream; 250 g small ripe strawberries for the crown; 1 tbsp sugar for the strawberries; 2 tbsp kirsch

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A mold lined with vanilla ice cream, filled with a strawberry bombe mixture of egg yolks, syrup and whipped cream, and ringed with strawberries in kirsch: Escoffier’s Bombe Alhambra of 1907.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Nov 3, 2026

Recipe makes: One 1.5-liter bombe, 8 servings
Prep: 1 hr
Cook: 10 hr
Total: 11 hr

The custard must chill before churning, the lined mold needs an hour in the freezer, and the filled bombe at least 6 hours more to set. Make it the day before.

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A strawberry bombe cut open to show the vanilla ice around its strawberry filling, ringed with strawberries.

The story behind the recipe

The ice at Princess Elizabeth’s wedding breakfast was a Bombe Glacée Princess Elizabeth, an iced bombe named for the bride. The menu card gives it no flavor. Later press accounts say it held strawberries, grown, CBC News adds, in a royal greenhouse, so this is a reconstruction: of the more than eighty bombes in Escoffier’s 1907 Guide, it follows the Bombe Alhambra, vanilla outside, strawberry within, and a crown of strawberries in kirsch around it.

Why is it called a bombe?

Escoffier explains the name himself. Bombes were first made from an ordinary ice “in spherical moulds; hence their name,” built up in concentric layers with a very thin one outside. By his day they were molded more often in the shape of shells, and the mixture inside was much more delicate than it had been.

His method has two parts. First the mold is “clothed” with a thin coat of an ordinary ice, the one each bombe’s recipe names. Then the middle is filled with the bombe mixture: egg yolks and syrup whisked over a very moderate fire until firm, whisked again over ice until cold, flavored, and folded into whipped cream. His quantities were for a hotel kitchen, thirty-two yolks to a quart of syrup and a quart and a third of cream. The mold was closed under a round of white paper, sealed with its lid and buried in ice for two or three hours.

Names on the list

Escoffier named his bombes after places, operas, people and fruits, from Aboukir to Zamora. The Alhambra is one of the simplest: vanilla ice cream around a strawberry filling, and when it is turned out, “a crown of fine strawberries macerated in Kirsch.” A bombe named for a bride fits the same habit of naming.

Making it today

Our vanilla ice cream is Escoffier’s custard of yolks, sugar and milk with a vanilla bean infused in it, made at half his quantities. The bombe mixture is an eighth of his, flavored with a strawberry purée of our choosing; he says only “add the selected flavour.” Ice packed against the mold draws the cold in faster than the still air of a home freezer, so we leave the filled bombe at least six hours.

Why rationing left its mark on the rest of the meal, and the wedding cake, is in What Was Served at Princess Elizabeth’s Wedding Breakfast in 1947? For a simpler Escoffier ice, there is his fruit ice of the same year, Apricot Ice (1907).

Clothe the mould with vanilla ice-cream, and garnish it with a strawberry Bombe-preparation. ...

A. EscoffierA Guide to Modern Cookery (London: William Heinemann, 1907), no. 2834, Bombe Alhambra, p. 803; nos. 2826 to 2828, Bombes, p. 802; nos. 2747 and 2757, Ice-cream Preparation and Vanilla Ice-cream, pp. 790 to 791

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Ingredients

For One 1.5-liter bombe, 8 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for One 1.5-liter bombe, 8 servings.

Whole milk570 ml
Vanilla bean, split1
Large egg yolks for the ice cream5
Sugar for the ice cream150 g
Sugar for the syrup100 g
Water80 ml
Large egg yolks for the bombe4
Ripe strawberries for the purée150 g
Heavy cream200 ml
Small ripe strawberries for the crown250 g
Sugar for the strawberries1 tbsp
Kirsch2 tbsp

Ingredients as written here

570 ml whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split
5 large egg yolks for the ice cream
150 g sugar for the ice cream
100 g sugar for the syrup
80 ml water
4 large egg yolks for the bombe
150 g ripe strawberries for the purée
200 ml heavy cream
250 g small ripe strawberries for the crown
1 tbsp sugar for the strawberries
2 tbsp kirsch

Equipment

1.5-liter bombe mold or metal pudding basin, with a lid or foil
Ice cream maker
2 heatproof bowls and a pan of barely simmering water
Whisk or hand mixer
Large bowl of ice
Instant-read thermometer
Fine sieve
Blender

Instructions

Put the mold in the freezer to chill.
Bring the milk just to a boil, take it off the heat, add the vanilla bean and leave it to infuse for 20 minutes. Scrape the seeds into the milk and take out the pod.
Whisk the egg yolks for the ice cream with the sugar for the ice cream until pale and thick. Whisk in the hot milk a little at a time, return everything to the pan and stir over low heat, without boiling, until the custard coats the spoon and reaches 175°F (80°C).
Strain the custard into a bowl, cool it, then chill it for at least 2 hours.
Churn the custard in the ice cream maker until thick. Spread it over the bottom and sides of the chilled mold in an even layer about 2 cm thick, leaving the middle hollow, and freeze for 1 hour.
Dissolve the sugar for the syrup in the water over medium heat, bring it to a boil and take it off the heat.
Whisk the egg yolks for the bombe in a heatproof bowl, then whisk in the hot syrup in a thin stream. Set the bowl over barely simmering water and whisk until the mixture is thick and pale and reaches 160°F (71°C).
Take the bowl off the heat, set it in the bowl of ice and keep whisking until the mixture is completely cold.
Purée the strawberries for the purée in the blender, press the purée through the sieve, and fold it into the cold yolk mixture.
Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold it in gently.
Pour the filling into the hollow of the ice-cream lining and smooth the top. Cover it with a round of parchment, close the mold with its lid or foil, and freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
Half an hour before serving, hull and halve the strawberries for the crown, toss them with the sugar for the strawberries and the kirsch, and leave them to macerate.
Dip the mold in cold water, then briefly in lukewarm water, dry it, and turn the bombe out onto a chilled dish. Surround it with the strawberries and serve at once.

Nutrition

395calories per serving

Recipe makes: One 1.5-liter bombe, 8 servings
Servings: 8

Estimated per serving (8) from USDA FoodData Central values for whole milk, egg yolks, sugar, heavy cream, strawberries and kirsch.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Sized for a 1.5-liter mold. Keep the ice-cream lining thin, about 2 cm, so the filling has room.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Escoffier’s quantities are for a professional kitchen: we halve his ice-cream custard and use an eighth of his bombe mixture, sized for a 1.5-liter mold. His syrup “at 28°” by the saccharometer is close to our sugar and water. He mixes the yolks with the syrup and whisks them over the fire together; we whisk the hot syrup into the yolks first, then finish them over simmering water. The strawberry purée in the filling, its amount, and the freezing times are ours. The custard and the yolk mixture are both heated to a safe temperature for eggs.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.