Earlier this year, Fortnum & Mason launched a competition with a fairly nebulous purpose: entrants were encouraged to submit recipes for a new dessert, designed to celebrate the anniversary of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, with the winner crowned the “Platinum Pudding”. The triumphant confection, which had to be deemed accessible enough for the general public to attempt (and inevitably balls-up) at home, was promised a place in “food history” alongside such classic royal dishes as Victoria Sponge and Coronation Chicken, which is of course now a celebrated supermarket sandwich filling.
The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking represented the finale of that competition, as the bakers of the final five recipes were invited into Fortnum and Mason’s kitchens to make their dishes. These were presented to a panel.
Led by “doyenne of baking” Mary Berry, it consisted of Michelin-starred chef Monica Galetti, baking influencer Matt Adlard, cookbook author Jane Dunn, winner of 2018’s Great British Bake Off Rahul Mandal, dessert historian Regula Ysewijn, and Fortnum & Mason executive pastry chef Roger Pizey. Stockport resident Jemma Melvin’s lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle announced as the eventual winner.
The trifle emerged victorious above a passionfruit and thyme tart with a cheesecake layer, a mousse with a Welsh cake base, a reimagining of a Victoria Sponge via the medium of bundt cake, and a rose falooda cake.
By my estimation, quite a lot of these are variations on existing puddings rather than brand-new recipes, so the actual aim of the competition, as well as the outcome, felt muddled. There was confirmation that the winning dessert will be served to the Queen during her Jubilee celebrations, and elsewhere some vague talk about the expectation that “the nation will be baking this dish” – but no actual guarantee of it.
A better prize – which doesn’t rely on the very optimistic assumption that members of the public will be spending the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend doing anything other than getting drunk and sunburned – would probably have seen the winning pudding sold in a supermarket. Heaven forbid serving anything shop-bought!
As you might expect from something that combined baking and the Queen, The Jubilee Pudding leaned into the British tendency towards twee – Union Jacks, little cake forks, the word “scrumptious” were out in full force. The main issue, however, is that it was extremely boring.
The lack of a host meant that historical sections were slow (we were treated to a whole segment on the correct way to make Coronation Chicken), and while Galetti and Berry tried their best in some chatty exchanges with the five bakers, this was certainly no Bake Off.
By the time Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall was wheeled in for an audience with the bakers, and to announce the winner (her appearance unfortunately didn’t do much for the idea that the royals enjoy or are any good at actually talking to us plebs), the whole affair started to feel a bit painstaking. Though the contestants were clearly talented, and the champion Jemma delighted, as a full package, The Jubilee Pudding was less an indulgent dessert and more a flat pancake.
The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking is streaming on BBC iPlayer
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