The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking

What better way to celebrate 70 years on the throne than with a huge party?

The celebrations for the Queen’s Jubilee next month are set to be spectacular, with a four-day bank holiday weekend running from June 2-5.

Back in January, Her Majesty announced the programme of celebrations for that weekend, which includes a procession through central London, a special Trooping The Colour on Horse Guards Parade, a Party at the Palace featuring a host of celebrity performers, a beacon-lighting ceremony, a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral, and much more.

But no celebration would be complete without a cake, and the people in charge decided to get the nation involved by launching a baking competition.

The Big Jubilee Lunch teamed up with Fortnum & Mason – grocer to the Royal Household – to launch the Platinum Pudding Competition, a nationwide contest to find a new pudding to dedicate to Her Majesty’s remarkable seven decades on the throne.

They invited applications from UK residents aged eight and over to create the perfect Platinum Pudding recipe, and almost 5,000 entries flooded in.

Here, cameras follow the five exceptional home-baking finalists – Kathryn, Jemma, Sam, Shabnam and Susan – as they as they arrive at Fortnum & Mason’s iconic shop on Piccadilly to prepare their creations for an expert judging panel of award-winning home bakers, professional chefs, authors, historians and patissiers.

Chaired by ‘Queen of the Home Kitchen’ Dame Mary Berry, the panel includes chef and broadcaster Monica Galetti, Great British Bake Off winner Rahul Mandal, Fortnum & Mason’s Executive Pastry Chef, Roger Pizey, food writer, author and baker Jane Dunn, pastry chef Matt Adlard, culinary historian and author Regula Ysewijn, bestselling food writer Jane Dunn, and the head chef at Buckingham Palace, Mark Flanagan.

Mary says: “I’m so thrilled to be panel chair for this exciting competition to make the perfect pudding fit for the Queen, and to work alongside such a wonderful team of judges. I hope everyone who enters has lots of fun and I wish them the very best of luck.”

So what will the judges be using as criteria to create the Jubilee Pudding?

The ingredients list needs to be 100-per-cent accurate – even a degree of imprecision can affect the flavour of a recipe. The winning dish will be an important part of the street parties and events, so it needs to be easy enough for people everywhere to recreate at home.

Therefore panel are looking for ingredients and kitchen equipment readily available to people all over the world, rather than fancy gadgets and complicated instructions.

They are also seeking a pudding made with passion and pride, as well as recipes inspired by Her Majesty The Queen’s life, and those handed down through the generations, or a special family memory.

Finally, as the proof of the pudding is in the eating, it should taste delicious, and, as this one will be served to The Queen, it also needs to look the part.

At the end of the show, the identity of the winning baker and pudding will be announced by HRH the Duchess of Cornwall.