The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking
August 8th, 8 PM

As part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee festivities, baking royalty Dame Mary Berry prepares a special dessert for Her Majesty’s birthday. What could be better than a huge party to celebrate 70 years on the throne?

To mark Her Majesty’s remarkable seven decades on the throne, the Big Jubilee Lunch teamed up with Fortnum & Mason, grocer to the Royal Household, to launch the Platinum Pudding Competition.

A contest was held for UK residents aged eight and over to create the perfect Platinum Pudding recipe, and almost 5,000 entries were received. A panel of award-winning home bakers, professional chefs, writers, historians and patissiers will judge the finalists’ creations in The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking, which follows Kathryn, Jemma, Sam, Shabnam, and Susan as they prepare their creations for Fortnum & Mason’s shop on Piccadilly.

As well as ‘Queen of the Home Kitchen’ Dame Mary Berry, the panel includes Monica Galetti, Rahul Mandal, Roger Pizey, food writer, author and baker Jane Dunn, pastry chef Matt Adlard, Regula Ysewijn, and Mark Flanagan, master chef at Buckingham Palace. 

According to Mary, if she had to make a pudding for the Queen, she would make, “Something that would be possible for a street party, a family celebration, and portable. Something that could be made ahead of an event and something with favorite flavors, not too unusual and spectacular.”

To be easy for people all over the world to reproduce at home, the winning dish needs to be easy to make with ingredients and kitchen equipment readily available worldwide, rather than
fancy gadgets and complicated instructions. In addition, they want a pudding made with passion and pride, along with recipes inspired by Her Majesty the Queen’s life and passed
down through the generations. Finally, since the pudding’s true test comes in eating, it must taste delicious and, given that it will be served to The Queen, it must look impressive as well.

At the end of the show, the identity of the winning baker and pudding will be announced by the Duchess of Cornwall. Mary says: “It was very special to have the Duchess of Cornwall at the final and she had a very special role. It was a privilege to hand her the envelope for her to announce the winner. She was delightful.”

The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking airs August 8th, at 8 pm on OETA and is available to stream anytime at oeta.tv