Finalists of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee pudding competition revealed

The winning recipe will mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

02 May 2022

Cakes commemorating the Queen’s wedding and multicultural Britain are among those in the final of a nationwide competition to find a pudding fit to celebrate the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee.

Recipes by five amateur bakers have been selected from nearly 5,000 entries from across the country as part of the competition between royal grocer Fortnum & Mason and the Big Jubilee Lunch in honour of the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

The Duchess of Cornwall and Dame Mary Berry will announce the winner during a special BBC One programme, The Queen’s Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years In The Baking, which airs on May 12.

Among the five finalists is Shabnam Russo who lives in north London and works part-time at her husband’s skincare clinic while also catering for friends and family parties as a hobby.

Russo, who says the Queen has been a role model in her life, feels she has the “perfect cake” to celebrate the monarch’s historic reign.

She explained her rose falooda Cake recipe, which originates from the streets of Mumbai, reflects the Commonwealth and how Britain has become a multicultural society.

“My falooda cake is a humble cake of the people and by qualifying I felt I was representing people from all walks of life, their struggles, journeys, their hopes and aspirations and I hope is inspiration for anyone really, that you can achieve anything if you just believe in yourself,” she added.

Retired sales manager Susan, 65, from Argyll and Bute in Scotland takes her cooking inspiration from her mother but has only become a keen amateur baker in recent years.

She noted that the inspiration behind her four nations pudding, which consists of Scottish berries, Yorkshire rhubarb, Welsh cakes and Irish butter and cream, was to represent the UK coming together.

Susan said: “The Queen’s Jubilee is the one time that we can all be together to celebrate our Queen and how she’s represented us during her selfless 70-year service to our country.

“So I wanted my pudding to represent us as one nation.”

Sam, a 32-year-old lawyer from Warwickshire, began baking aged seven with her grandmother who taught her all the traditional baking methods.

Her submission of the jubilee bundt cake is based on the classic Victoria sponge but with a royal twist as it is shaped like a crown and includes a Dubonnet jam, which she read was the Queen’s favourite tipple.

She hopes families all over the world will be able to easily recreate the recipe in their own kitchens to join in on the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Copywriter Jemma, 31, from Stockport also began baking as a child but started experimenting again when she got her own home four years ago.

She explained that her lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle is a tribute to both of her grandmothers as one taught her to bake and the other’s signature dish was a trifle.

The amateur baker feels her recipe is fit for the Queen as she has based the flavour on the dessert served at the monarch’s wedding, lemon posset.

While 29-year-old Kathryn, a composer and oboist who lives in Oxfordshire, describes herself as a “‘chuck everything in’ kind of cook”.

She feels her passion fruit and thyme frangipane tart is perfect for the Queen’s historic celebration as it is a “light summery pudding”.

Kathryn noted that it also commemorates her grandmother, who continued to work as an NHS nurse during the pandemic before she died in April 2020 at the age of 84, as it is a variation of her favourite cake.

The winning recipe will be revealed in The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years In The Baking, which airs on BBC One at 8pm on May 12.